CTA: Virus growth rate ‘accelerating’ in cities outside 'NCR Plus'

By Gaea Katreena Cabico - Philstar.com

Members of the InterAgency Council for Traffic check vaccination cards of commuters at the EDSA Carousel Busway Monumento Station in Quezon City as they continue to strictly implement the "no vaccination, no ride" policy of the Department of Transportation on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022.

MANILA, Philippines — The growth rate of COVID-19 cases slowed down in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces but the spread of virus continued to accelerate in other highly urbanized cities, OCTA Research said.

“While growth rates have slowed in NCR Plus, they are still accelerating in many highly urbanized cities outside NCR Plus,” OCTA Research fellow David said, referring to Metro Manila and neighboring provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal and Cavite.

According to David, the capital region recorded only a 10% growth rate of cases from January 12 to 18. Metro Manila’s reproduction rate—or the number of people an individual positive for COVID-19 can infect—was at 2.07.

Based on OCTA Research’s data, the cities with the highest growth rates from January 12 to 18 were Tacloban City (469%), Cebu City (378%), Davao City (305%), Iloilo City (281%) and Baguio City (269%).

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Tuesday that the Philippines remained at critical risk from COVID-19 even if the increase in cases was slowing down.

OCTA’s David also reported that the downward trend in the City of Manila is “now clear.”

The seven-day average of new cases in the capital city decreased by 23% from 2,152 to 1,658, and the reproduction number also went down to 1.5.

“Apart from Manila, San Juan and Malabon also had negative one week growth rates. NCR residents must continue to remain vigilant in following public health guidelines to sustain the trends,” David said.

Daily cases in the Philippines have reached record highs in January as an Omicron-driven surge in infections rips through Metro Manila and surrounding provinces.

The Department of Health reported Tuesday 28,471 additional infections. There are currently 284,458 active cases.

DepEd eyes expansion of face-to-face classes in February for vaxxed personnel, students

by Merlina Hernando-Malipot, Manila Bulletin

The expansion phase of limited face-to-face classes eyed to start in the first week of February will only include vaccinated participants, the Department of Education (DepEd) said.

During President Duterte’s Talk to the People aired on Monday, Jan. 17, Education Secretary Leonor Briones gave updates on the pilot run of limited face-to-face classes and its possible expansion by next month.

Briones reported to the President that the pilot run of face-to-face classes held from Nov. 15 to Dec. 22 had been “highly successful” given the “high level of attendance” among students.

A total of 287 schools and 15,000 learners participated in the pilot run. Briones said that there were “no confirmed” coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases among the participants during the pilot implementation.

Given the positive outcome of the pilot run, Briones said that the DepEd is recommending the “progressive expansion” of face-to-face classes in areas under Alert Levels 1 and 2.

“Expansion will commence not earlier than the first week of February,” Briones said.

During the expansion phase, the DepEd is recommending that only vaccinated teachers and non-teaching personnel be allowed to participate.

Briones added that the “participation of vaccinated students shall be preferred.”

She noted that the framework of shared responsibility that includes the concurrence of local government units (LGUs) and parents’ consent “will remain a requirement.”

However, Briones clarified that those schools under Alert Level 3 areas — such as the National Capital Region (NCR) and Region IV-A — will not be included in the expansion phase due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in these places.

The self-righteous tend to be fault-finders

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

THIS observation is clearly illustrated many times in the gospel. Many of the leading Jews in the times of Christ did not believe in Christ, and their idea of what is right and wrong was simply very subjective, held with a certain consensus among themselves. As a consequence, they always found fault in Christ and in his disciples for what they considered as violations to the law as they understood it. (cfr. Mk 3,1-6)

We have to be most wary of this spiritual anomaly that can come to us anytime. It usually takes advantage of our natural inclination to seek the truth, the good and the beautiful in life—in short, what is right—and corrupts that inclination because it is not properly rooted on the ultimate source of righteousness who is God himself. It’s so blinding that it can even assume the appearance of holiness.

Most prone to this illness are those with some special endowments in life, be it intelligence, talents, wealth, fame, power, health, beauty, etc. When all these gifts are not clearly grounded and oriented toward God, the source of all righteousness, the problem starts.

This is the irony of ironies because one can earnestly pursue the path of holiness and does practically everything to be good and holy, and yet ends up the opposite of what is intended. That’s when one practically has the trappings of goodness and holiness and yet misses the real root of righteousness who is God.

Nowadays, there is so much surge of self-righteousness, such that the source of what is good and evil, fair and unfair, human and inhuman is not anymore God the Creator, but us. The distinction is not anymore made by God, but by us. We are now in the world of pure subjectivism.

Everything is now based on our views and opinions, our preferences and current understanding of things. If we can manage to have some kind of consensus, then that’s it! We can now consider as good what actually is inherently bad, and we make a world of make-believe that sooner or later will burst.

People now follow their own light, a very beguiling and unreliable light. They have forgotten what Christ said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (Jn 8,12)

Because it is an understanding of righteousness that is not based on God, it is lived and pursued also without charity. It is always accompanied by the tendency to be fault-finders, negative and critical thinkers, etc. It tends to generate contention and division in society.

We should always be wary of this common tendency of ours, and fight it everytime traces of it start to appear. This, of course, will require a lot of humility among us, so we can always feel the need to refer things to God rather than considering them solely according to our criteria and standards.

We have to understand that since God, being the Creator, is the standard of everything, we should regard him as the very substance of what is good, true and beautiful, what is fair and just, what is perfection itself.

Thus, to combat this tendency to be self-righteous that would lead us to be fault-finders, etc., we really need to develop an abiding and intimate relation with God!

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com