Hard lockdown: time and again
The National Capital Region and other parts of the country will again be placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) starting this week. Health experts call it a ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown which is essentially switching from loose to tight lockdowns when cases surge and when the spread of the virus is somewhat contained, reverting gradually to less stringent quarantine restrictions.
When the Philippines experienced a surge in March of this year, the ‘circuit breaker’ approach has successfully contained the spread prompting the government to loosen restrictions on a piecemeal basis.
Then came the Delta variant, which ravaged India and our neighbor Indonesia. As we now prepare for another wave of infection, the government has again ordered another lockdown to contain the new variant that is more transmissible than the earlier variants. As many Filipinos will lose their jobs during the lockdown, calls for financial aid have escalated.
While hard lockdown proved to be effective in curbing the spread of the virus, it is sad to note that this is also the most damaging approach in terms of livelihood among Filipinos.
Why does the government need to resort to hard lockdown while some countries sparingly used the strategy on their citizens? We don’t have to ask this question to the government because the answer lies in our hands. Perhaps, one way to answer the question is to examine how we relate ourselves to our community.
Japan’s pandemic response is worthy of reflection. With much of the world enforcing lockdowns, life in Japan has been less disrupted, and its experience with COVID-19 shows the importance of a tailored approach to the crisis. The key to Japan’s success in its pandemic response can be attributed more to the value placed by its citizens on collective good that is fundamental to both Japanese culture and policy-making.
The Japanese do not view mask-wearing as an imposition. Beyond protecting themselves, the Japanese wear a mask to avoid spreading even cold to somebody else. It is a form of respect to others, so it has been common in Japan even before the coronavirus. This attitude extends to the environment: preservation of the environment, and its enhancement, are primary values in Japan, and this translates into better population health outcomes. (Japan’s Pandemic Response, https://bit.ly/3j3Yonv)
In Japanese society, the collective is always more important than the individual self because there is the deep belief that collective wellbeing and performance will translate into individual wellbeing and performance. Facing a pandemic, this is a very useful attitude for a population to have.(Japan’s Pandemic Response, https://bit.ly/3j3Yonv)
Do we deserve a hard lockdown? The fact that the government needs to resort to it every time there is a surge of cases gives us a clear answer.