THE SCIENCE OF QUARANTINE

by
EDGAR S. GOROSPE
Teacher III
IRENE RAYOS OMBAC NHS
Bolaoen, Bugallon, Pangasinan

When the national government declared the “State of National Health

Emergency” last March 9, 2020, it means the government is invoking its ‘police power’
or the power of the state to regulate and enforce order to promote and protect the
general welfare, in this case, to address the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, the
state is utilizing its extra-ordinary powers.  Everything now is viewed from the prism of
the “health emergency”. Other issues like mobility of people, employment and livelihood,
commerce, leisure, etc. become secondary concerns – the primary being the health
issue. 
 
The subtext of the ‘health emergency’ imposition is that the government, based
on assessment, is resigned to the fact that (a) many will be infected by the virus if no
action is done; and (b) many will die if they all get infected all at the same time.   The
health system does not have the capacity to take care of many cases at the same time,
but people will have a fighting chance if they get sick one-batch-at- a-time.  The aim is
to ‘flatten the curve’ – to spread out the sick over a period of time so that they all get a
chance to be treated.  This, apparently, is the primary solution being offered by the
national government. 
 
Social/ physical distancing is the mode.  Barangay lockdown and COVID-19
checkpoints were set-up. Since the reaction of people can range from obedience to
rebellion, peace and order become a potential issue. Police and the military were
therefore deployed. Overnight, chaos ensued.  Since there was no issuance on how the
daily income of people will be addressed, the checkpoints, instead of becoming the
platform for social distancing, become instant vectors of crowds and virus transmission. 
 
The National government must immediately create a national health command
center that is staffed by relevant government units and private sector experts.   The
command center must put in place systems that (a) would allow public and private
research institutions to gather data, collaborate, share information, and mobilize
experts; (b) Monitor and regulate the entry and exit of local and international flights; (c)
Mobilize public and private resources to safeguard the most affected and most
vulnerable sectors (i.e. the daily wage earners, informal sector, elderly, persons with
disabilities)  by providing safety nets in the form of food subsidy (immediate) and
monetary package (medium to long term); (d) Frame a communications plan and create
teams that will regularly provide updates to the public.  In times of crisis, transparency of
information is crucial to generate support from the public.   
 The Local Government Unit is the front-line in program intervention. They must
(a) mobilize and engage the private sector in their localities especially in resource
mobilization (e.g. funds, transportation, temporary sleeping facility for frontline workers ;
(b) Manage the COVID-19 checkpoints, utilizing the Barangay tanod, neighborhood
associations, and police, and tapping the military only when necessary; (c) Have a
massive distribution of masks and put “disinfectation” boxes in strategic areas of the
locality; (d) In the absence of available testing kits for massive testing, deploy LGU
workers and community volunteers to do house-to-house thermal scanning of residents.
This will not detect the asymptomatic cases, but at least will generate baseline data on
how many are potential PUI/ PUM.  It would also allow the targeted deployment to
testing kits; (e) Make vehicles available to community residents. The vehicles can be
used for medical and other concerns, giving priority to the elderly and PWDs.  If vehicles
are few, scheduling on a per-street/ community can be done and announced in
advance; (f) Conduct community data gathering to identify households in most need of
assistance.  Rather than the one-size fits all distribution of relief package, the data will
allow LGUs to distribute assistance only to those who really need them and save on
resources; (g) Create a ‘market-day’ schedule per community/ street. Bring the “market”
to communities, announcing the schedule and the available commodity to be sold in
advance. This will lessen the need of people to get out of communities. 
The Science behind all of these quarantine approaches is to control the spread of
the virus, delay its spread by limiting humans, its host, to be at contact frequently as
much as possible. The virus as many typical viruses only thrives in its host for weeks
Abd usually dies if it does not find another host to thrive in, that’s why we are not
allowed to go out and just stay home.

THE SCIENCE OF QUARATINE by EDGAR S. GOROSPE Teacher III IRENE RAYOS

OMBAC NHS Bolaoen, Bugallon, Pangasinan When the national government declared the
“State of National Health Emergency” last March 9, 2020, it means the government is invoking
its ‘police power’ or the power of the state to regulate and enforce order to promote and protect
the general welfare, in this case, to address the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, the state is
utilizing its extra-ordinary powers. Everything now is viewed from the prism of the “health
emergency”. Other issues like mobility of people, employment and livelihood, commerce,
leisure, etc. become secondary concerns – the primary being the health issue. The subtext of the
‘health emergency’ imposition is that the... (only first 800 chars shown)
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