Stay Home, Save Lives

Children playing in the street, students going to school, adults going to their work,

anyone can go anywhere to relax and enjoy but who have taught that we are going to face

the kind of pandemic that we have today?

Covid-19 made everyone’s lives difficult. Why can I say so? All activities have

stopped, and if not, those activities were limited to perform. We have reached the point

that people are limited to go outside their house and if not essential, you have to stay at

home.

The government has assigned COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the

Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases Resolutions. The Inter-Agency Task Force

on Emerging Infectious Diseases is a task force organized by the executive of the

Philippine government to respond to affairs concerning emerging infectious diseases in

the Philippines. On Prevention - strictly comply and monitor adherence to public health

standards and safety protocols: a. Enable adherence to minimum public health standards

even at home; b. Distribute and promote the use of personal protective equipment such as

face masks and face shields and; c. Retrofit workplaces, establishments, and public places

to ensure adequate ventilation, and compliance to engineering and administrative controls

developed by the Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Labor and

Employment. The following are some of the preventive measures to prevent the covid-

19:

• Clean your hands often. Use soap and water, or an alcohol-based hand rub.
• Maintain a safe distance from anyone who is coughing or sneezing.

• Maintain at least a 1-meter distance between yourself and others to reduce your risk of

infection when they cough, sneeze or speak. Maintain an even greater distance between

yourself and others when indoors. The further away, the better.

• Make wearing a mask a normal part of being around other people. The appropriate use,

storage, and cleaning or disposal are essential to make masks as effective as possible.

• Don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth.

• Cover your nose and mouth with your bent elbow or a tissue when you cough or sneeze.

• Stay home if you feel unwell.

• If you have a fever, cough, and difficulty breathing, seek medical attention.

• Calling in advance allows your healthcare provider to quickly direct you to the right

health facility. This protects you and prevents the spread of viruses and other infections.

These are the preventive measures that we usually hear or read in the media. If we

follow these, we will be safe from infecting the virus. Some are following these health

protocols, but some also not. They will just follow it once they acquire the virus and

experience the symptoms or any of their family members or the worst scenario was if it

reached the death of their loved ones.

And just like in our real life, we have rules, some follow, but some are not. We

tend to be comfortable not obeying rules in our country because we cannot feel the actual

consequences of not following. Life has many rules, but despite these rules, we have to

follow them and at the same time enjoy them while we can.
 But can we blame the ordinary people who are eager to return to their work? What

should they focus on first, their health or their empty stomach as well as their family who

are dependent on them? They can’t depend themselves through the help of the

government. That’s why many of our countrymen became resourceful in times of the

pandemic, to satisfy their everyday needs.

On the other side, this pandemic only showed us that we have to show our love to

our loved ones while we are alive or vice versa. We tend to ignore little happenings that

turned out to be a blessing. We know that Covid-19 gave us hard time to recover from the

lost job, lost relatives, lost enjoyed times, but despite of it, we have to look for the

positive sides like giving time to our family which we can’t give when we have our jobs

because of busy schedules. Our time to relax our body and mind even we stay at home.

To maintain our good personal hygiene like washing our hands often, and sanitizing it

through sanitizer as well as alcohol. Be careful whenever we talk to strangers or even to

the people we know. If we can’t resist going to work, then at least follow the simple

preventive measures that the IATF has always reminded us to do.

Prevention is better than cure. We have already heard of the saying, but are we still

applying it in our lives? It is better to suffer now, for staying at home and following

preventive measures than to suffer later when you are already in the hospital and fighting

for your life. Let’s stay home, stay lives.