Ph not opening its border to international tourism until the second half of 2021

Back in June, most countries in Europe also thought the pandemic was "increasingly under control".
Right now, most of those same countries are experiencing their "second wave" and are approaching (France, Netherlands) or even exceeding (Spain) previous daily maximums of infections.
For a country with a fragile healthcare system like the Philippines to declare the pandemic "increasingly under control", while testing so far has been marginal and slow because of severe capacity shortages, is best characterized as reckless.

 

First, Many people are flying through the Manila airport or staying in specifically designated traveler hotels in Manila without getting exposed to Manila residents.

Second, The government has already stated that the vaccine will be made available to all citizens for free.

 

I recently stayed in just such a hotel. At the Manila Hilton, you have to have a reservation as there are no walk-ins. My wife and I stayed there for a few nights as we attempted to get PCRs for onward travel. We went to St. Luke's in Manila, to the emergency room, to find a huge crowd, probably numbering a couple hundred or more, getting evaluated for various sniffles. We waited for our PCR tests right next to people at the emergency room complaining of COVID symptoms and awaiting assessment. After getting tested, we moved through the press of people to a car that was waiting for us. I felt like a celebrity.

During our stay, we ate at public restaraunts that were open on occassion, visited an overcrowded 7-11 for supplies, got coffee from a Starbucks, and ate a buffet style breakfast, with spacing controlled by floor stickers to ensure social distance was observed. Please explain to me how we were not "exposed to Manila residents" as you say.

 

the reality in this country makes control measures pure nonsense. when the third quarter results come in for the phils gnp the whole idea of what is ok/not ok is going to change

 

It is tough to describe the madness I witnessed, but it was in July as I had a flight on the 15th to the UAE. Sorry, I just figured many read my rather long set of posts on the subject.

As we arrived, there was a crowd of people, large enough to make walking in through the ambulance access driveway difficult without shouldering people. As it turns out, "most" of these people were waiting for evaluation by a 30 strong force of nurses/doctors that were situated in booths separated by 5 foot partition walls. These were people that feared they had COVID and were there to see if it was true. They were questioned and if their description of events/symptoms held up to scrutiny, they were actually tested. I saw many leave without being tested. So when I said "evaluated", I meant just that.

In what way was I lucky? I ended up spending a couple thousand dollars to stay in a hotel, get tested, and change flight dates due to last minute changes. Was I lucky that I didn't catch a disease that would have robbed me of my sense of smell for 2 weeks in exchange for all of that wasted time and money? I suppose some view it so.