As I look into my calendar, I realize it’s been a year since we started battling this pandemic.
Last March, the exhausting quarantine that made us all stay inside our homes and use face masks as part of our daily routine marked its first year or what people call “quarantine-versary”.
Let’s take a look back on what happened in 2020; from the unending lockdowns, tiring struggles in online classes, continuous increase of COVID-19 cases -- and the list goes on.
How it started
The community lockdown started in March 2020 with the premise of only a week’s worth of quarantine. The almost-human savagery of food and sanitizer hoarding followed soon thereafter, coupled with hints of elitism from celebrities, and the now nostalgic, Dalgona coffee trend.
But it seemed like sipping the sweet Dalgona coffee became a bitter one while reading news about the pandemic; cries and demands for mass testing as COVID-19 cases continued to rise— all ignored and unheard by authorities who were too busy hosting mañanitas.
Fast forward to students going “back-to-school” without the exciting crowded hallways, noisy chitchats from seatmates, and sharing of foods in the cafeteria, with the ‘introduce yourselves’ part being done only through distance learning, which many students found difficult to adapt to.
How it’s going
One year in, wearing face masks and face shields is now just part of our daily routine, with a side of bad governance. Last year’s cries and struggles are still today’s issue.
Last year, people were calling all of our health and safety precautions the ‘new normal’ but nowadays, it seems like we are normalizing this new normal — day by day the situation is just getting worse. Filipinos are also still at risk of the virus, but obviously, only minimal differences have been made compared to last year.
2020 might be the most challenging year we’ve had as we have faced different challenges in terms of education, the health care system, finance, bad governance, and other personal issues. As Filipinos, it is our responsibility to demand accountability, and not let this deceitful of a year happen again.
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