It’s the CHRISTMAS holidays, and that means 2020 is almost over! I’m sure we’re all dying to get this year over with. But, don’t die before it ends!

Everybody is so sick and tired of hearing about COVID-19 news day in and day out, and unfortunately, we’ve started to become lax with our pandemic standards. We’re going out more, dining with friends whom we haven’t seen in over nine months, booking tickets to travel again. This is unavoidable and I know we all miss our old lives. Especially with the excitement of vaccines coming soon, there is a sense of euphoria coinciding with the Christmas season.

However, we haven’t won yet. This virus is still ever present and we shouldn’t take off our battle gear just yet. Spikes in cases are going up in some regions of the Philippines such as in Eastern Visayas, especially among cities with low incidence rates relative to Metro Manila and Cebu. Some of these patients are in the ICU, and most of them are cases that occur among family members - fathers fighting for their lives with their sons a few beds away. In the US, many hospitals have noticed a surge in COVID admissions as well. An Infectious Disease colleague practising in Los Angeles, CA has been doing straight duties, exhausted from caring for so many COVID patients.

It sure seems like things are going back to normal. The community quarantine abbreviations and their various iterations that haunted us for months are no longer part of everyday vocabulary. Churches are starting to fill up again and Simbang Gabi (Dawn Masses) will proceed as per usual. Some churchgoers feel it is their responsibility to attend mass inside an actual church and haughtily look down on people still shut in their homes. Those staying home go to an online mass and pass judgement while watching the physical attendees— “That guy’s mask is below his chin!”

Are we going to act like everything is back to normal or should we stick to “survival of the fittest” mode? It is so hard to impose what to do on others, and we shouldn’t. Living in a pandemic with all the information we need to survive should be enough. But at this point, we should still be reminded — we are not safe yet.

It’s Christmas, a time of giving. The best gift we can give others right now is health and safety. So if we can’t assure this for our family and friends, let’s insist on NOT meeting up with them. Schedule online parties, send each other gifts and food using couriers. Use apps to buy them groceries. Give them alcohol, soap, face masks and shields. Give love this Christmas by not spreading the virus.