“Covid-19 cases in [the] Philippines exceed 50,000 with highest single-day increase” said the headline of China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency two night ago. “Philippines virus cases soar past 50,000 as lockdown eases,” said another, this time from the United States-based Associated Press.

After the economy reopened by about 75 percent in the past month, as estimated by Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua, the number of first-wave infections of the coronavirus disease 2019 continue to spike and there are no signs the country would “flatten the curve” soon.