As nCoV fear grows, daily routines become extraordinary

• Published date: 02 February 2020
• Publication title: Philippines Daily Inquirer

The most visible sign of growing concern over the deadly novel coronavirus (nCoV), now confirmed to be in the Philippines, are the facial masks.

At a hospital east of Manila, it would have been ordinary for people to wear masks but to see nearly nine out of every 10 persons walking through the door to be wearing masks was telling-these are not ordinary times.

'It's a hospital so it won't be unusual to see staff, visitors or patients wearing masks,' said a nurse at the hospital's outpatient section who gave her name only as Amy.

'But now, the corridors, even lobby and driveways are filled with people in masks,' she said. 'It just shows people are being cautious,' she added.

'Especially now that there's already a confirmed case of coronavirus,' she said, referring to the Department of Health (DOH) confirmation on Thursday (Jan. 30) of the Philippines' first nCoV case.

At a drug store outside just across the hospital, Jim, a family driver, withdrew from a queue that he guessed was already half-a-kilometer long.

'They were all there to buy masks,' Jim said.

His boss, a bank executive, had asked him to buy 10 boxes of masks. Some would be donated, said Jim.

Unending queue

He was willing to wait in line but his boss' schedule forced him to quit the queue. 'I estimated that it would take me a minimum four hours to be at the counter,' Jim said. 'I had only 30 minutes to spare,' he said.

Jim greets a fellow driver also waiting for his boss at the hospital lobby. 'Hey, were you able to buy?' Jim shouted across the lobby to his fellow driver whom he called Noy, referring to masks.

'Yes,' replied Noy, his voice also raised for Jimmy to hear. 'I got them.' Noy pulled down his mask and gave out a smile that seemed to tell Jim 'I got one over you.'

'I was outside the store as early as 6 a.m.,' Noy told Jim. 'You should have done it, too,' he added.

'I got 20 boxes,' proudly declared Noy. Jim throws a quick question at his fellow driver: 'What the hell are you going to do with 20 boxes of masks?'

At 50 masks per box, the supply that Noy bought translates to 1,000 masks. At an average of P40 per mask, it meant his boss spent P40,000.

'Don't know, maybe one for each day,' replied Noy, bearing a grin. 'Or maybe to keep for doomsday,' he said, letting out a laugh.

'Wait til you see how many masks the others there are buying,' said Noy, referring to the queue of people waiting to buy masks at the drugstore just across the street from the hospital.

'I saw some, they look like househelps, carrying notes with the number 100,' Noy said. 'Some were even 200, 300,' he said. The numbers were the number of boxes of masks that the bosses of what Noy described as domestic helpers had told their workers to buy.

'They should limit the purchase,' Noy said, referring to the drug store policy. 'But no, they just keep on handing them out,' he said. 'Bahala na (To each his own),' he said.

'If you fell in line for eternity and reach the counter and they say there's no more masks, it's tough luck,' said Noy.

Panic-buying

He recalled one buyer, a driver, too, filling the cargo hold of his boss' car, a luxury SUV, with 'boxes and boxes of masks you won't see the rear window anymore from the driver's seat.'

Jim grinned and shook his head listening to Noy's account on buying masks. 'It's a good thing my boss is not bad,' he said. 'He only wanted 10 boxes because some he wanted to give to our neighbors,' Jim said.

'But I wasn't able to get any,' Jim added. 'The queue would take a lifetime to move,' he said.

At the hospital's waiting area for outpatients, Rey sat in one of the spotless plastic chairs in a row of chairs in bright colors. He was waiting for his wife who had a checkup for myoma.

Just an arms' length from where Rey sat, hospital workers in blue uniforms, apparently outsourced employees, seemed to be on a ritual-spray, wipe and dry.

They spray what was presumably disinfectant on the empty chairs, the rail guards, the top of tables, door handles, the gleaming walls. Then they wipe it off, repeating a circular motion until they see...