The life of many people was jeopardized with an invisible, deadly enemy. The COVID-19 created a global health crisis that made a huge impact on how we view our world and our everyday lives. The Corona Virus 2019 also known as COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. The virus is primarily spread between people during close contact, often via small droplets produced by coughing, sneezing, or talking. The droplets usually fall to the ground or onto surfaces rather than remaining in the air over long distances. People may also become infected by touching a contaminated surface and then touching their faces. Due to its fast transmission, the best way we can do is to stay at home and avoid to have a direct contact to other people. Which is why the government put the whole country under the Enhanced Community Quarantine. But what is Enhanced Community Quarantine or EQC? Let’s find out.
The Enhanced Community Quarantine is equivalent to an “absolute lockdown or total lockdown.”. This ECQ is a protocol that restricts the movement of the population or usually prevents people from leaving an area. The mass gatherings are completely prohibited, and all means of public transport are no longer allowed limiting the movement of people. The populace’s movement is restricted to their homes, and they can only go outside to just buy basic needs such as food, medicines and other things needed for sustenance. Only a single person per household can go outside to buy basic necessities. In this situation, what will happen to our economy this year? The incomes, output, and jobs will fall, and like it or not, a large segment of the Filipino population will suffer increased pain and hardship this year.
Staying at home is the only thing we can do to be safe. I know that not being able to go out and not see friend can be really stressful. We may feel unmotivated and unproductive. But its not good to our health. Aren’t we stay at home because we want us to protect our self and others from the virus? Being quarantined can have serious mental health repercussions such as feelings of loneliness and fear about the future. So, what should do to be healthy and stay productive while were stuck behind those four walls? As said by an actress Angela Lansbury “Better to be busy than to be busy worrying,”. Here are some ways to stay productive during Enhance Community Quarantine.
1. Get some exercise
Exercise is badly needed in our situation now. Exercising improves strength, flexibility, agility, and mobility and most importantly it can help build your immunity during this Coronavirus pandemic. We need to stay physically fit to avoid some ailment. Due to the lockdown a lot of our time waste to staying to bed all day or just sticking with our gadgets to keep us busy. Its not good to our body. We need to exercise and eat healthy food.
2. Stay in touch with friends and family
We should use this to spend a lot of time with our family. Let’s make this an opportunity to spend time with the ones who are always there for us. Now we can cope to the time we had missed. We should also stay in touch with our friends and other relatives.
3. Take a rest
This time we should take a break from our busy world. Make sure that we recharge our self so we can be ready when its go back to normal.
4. Reduce your social media and news consumption
It’s good to be updated to our surrounding but sometimes it can be harmful to us. Some news tends to lead you to feel depressed and overwhelmed. Another thing is that we always compare ourselves to others which cause a depression. It will be good to reduce our time with social media and do some things that can make us happy.
5. Read a good book
Reading a book can help us a lot. It develops our vocabulary and comprehension. Through reading we can learn a lot and it widened our imagination that help us to be creative.
6. Watch the top movies and educational TV series
There’s a lot of TV series that will educate you on various topics. You are enjoying as well as learning a lot of things. You can also use this as a bonding with your family.
7. Learn a language
You had a lot of time to learn new language. Nowadays, you can easily find some books or videos that help you to learn some basic foreign language. It’s also good to develop your diction and pronunciation.
8. Learn various activity such as painting, musical instruments or some indoor games
You can now do anything you can’t do before. Enhance your skills and learn something new.
9. Involved in online tutorials
Even though we can’t go to outside now it doesn’t mean that we should stop studying. There’s a lot of online class that can help you to cope with your lesson.
10. Take time to reflect
What did I accomplish these past few months? What are my future goals? It will help you a lot to determine what you should do in the future. This also help you to know if you need to develop something to yourself.
There are various things you can do and be still productive during Enhanced Quarantine Community. You only need is to stay positive and view this situation as an opportunity. I hope that you learn something from reading this and stay productive during ECQ. I remember one of the quotations of Abraham Lincoln “This too shall pass,”. It will not last forever so let’s just wait until this storm came halt and we can go back again to our daily lives.