Emergency Covid-19

Do you think that might be the result of lack of vaccinations?

 

Must be - they need a 95% vaccination uptake to stop spread. But even with a very long-standing, effective and easily administered vaccine, we see that diseases can rear their ugly heads at times.

 

The problem is, to achieve herd immunity, infections have to actually happen. so the question is, how can you get up to a reasonable speed of the virus spreading, so that herd immunity is reached at some point and at the same time your hospitals dont break down. I fear that here, with the current hospital capacities, this means quarantine and thus a very slow spreading speed for a long time, possibly until a vaccine is out and herd immunity is reached that way.

but for such a long time span, they will need to relax the measures, open up stores and bring trade up to speed again. all with physical distancing and face masks etc, but people will have to buy stuff other than food sooner or later, as things break down and have to be replaced / repaired. Just yesterday i dropped my phone and thought, duh, what if its broken now - theres no way to get a proper replacement.

 

Why would they allow travel? The local economy is way more valuable than a few tourists.

Yes it will last long if everyone who comes on the island is quarantined or tested.

Yes it will matter in the long run. Keeping the economy open and productive will keep the community relatively prosperous compared to the devastation that would occur if the economy has to remain shut down.

Are you of the perspective that the entire economy here revolves around foreign tourists?

 

exactly. tourism is the least concern here - it's about all the other people and goods who are on buses ferries and planes all the time.

 

The BPOs are entirely virtual and all training required from overseas is done online. The BPOs have local trainers here for training new local recruits. Qualfon, the largest BPO here, is entirely managed by locals now. This isn't rocket science. They do not need any off island people. Only a good Internet connection.

A small number of travelers can be managed with contact tracing and quarantine.

In order to protect the BPO and other local industries they will keep travel through the ports severely restricted. There is no other choice. Allowing a traveler to reintroduce the virus is too dangerous. In time, when Cebu Island rids itself of the virus travel will be opened up between islands.

It will probably be a very long time before they let foreigners back in the country.