a reply to:
musicismagic
There are so many sad stories about Philippine people stranded in the Philippines that have trouble with visas to get back into Japan to be with
family. Every story is different in this case, but here in town the married to Japanese men are too afraid now to visit their homeland. Actually me
too. Afraid to visit my homeland. I don't know what all this is going to come down to other then we will just have to be vaccinated with
papers.
things were not too bad, until after Christmas and New Years. oh sure for awhile there a couple months before, there was a couple or so weeks with new
cases in the country hitting around 2,000 even 3,000 a day. but then a couple weeks i think it was before Christmas, numbers dropped to around 300 new
cases a day and lower for the country. so i guess people felt secure and decided to all travel around to spend the holidays with family (and i know
that most people i know did that). and i don't necessarily blame them after two years of pandemic, and not seeing family.especially since most kids in
the city and most people not having yards, were literally stuck in their houses for most of the pandemic (also picture that family home they were
stuck in being the size of a smallish, North American second or third bedroom in a house), only being allowed out the last few months. and of course
many ignoring protocols while doing so. but now here we are a couple weeks after the new year, and BANG cases have gone INSANE , and hitting over
30,000 new cases a day, for about a week now. which is what has prompted the newer measures about public transit and vax passes becoming more needed.
i don't even think they got their trial of a few schools starting to teach in person as a trial start going yet, i haven't heard, but i suspect that
aint happening now.
i suspect they will let it ride out another week, just as most of it is likely from the holidays, and hopefully will drop if people are doing what
they are supposed to do since. and if those numbers of new cases don't drastically drop, or worse, those numbers go higher, i can easily see another
country wide lock down for a minimum of two months (since it seems two months is the magic number in time to have a positive effect). and such a
lockdown i would suspect due to the severity of the problem will likely at least mirror the first lockdown. which means yet again children under 21
will be completely banned from going out, as well as those over 60 years old (like the younger kids, those over 65 have only been allowed out for
about a month or two), unless absolutely necessary to buy things like food, medicine (if there is no one else old or young enough not sick, to do so),
or to get medical treatment. with ALL forms of public transit shut down. all malls and everything but essential services and businesses shut down,
areas such as barangay with a lot of cases under hard lockdown, with no one allowed into those areas, and most not allowed out. the stopping of travel
between areas, except for people working actual essential jobs (documentation needed), or to get medical help. and only one person per household given
a pass to be allowed to go out at all, but only to buy essential things like food and medical supplies.
and i suspect that the only reason it hasn't happened yet, is that they really don't want to do it. that they are hoping these extremely high numbers
are just a blip from the holidays and will burn out in the next week or so. as well as hoping that what we have heard about this new variant not being
near as harmful is true. not to mention businesses are really still just recovering from the first time. and i doubt that companies like McDonalds and
other bigger restaurant and retail companies will be able to afford to continue to pay their workers that are not working this time round, like they
did for the first time of two month lockdowns (started and led by McDonalds). or if the big mall companies will be able to afford letting businesses
go rent free while they are not allowed to be open again. or to be honest that the government can afford to bring food to everyone in the country
while they are locked down again. it is definitely not something they will want to do, but there may be no choice.