Back in to Lockdowns

 Joy reports the mayor of her company's town in Bulacan has the virus, and there has been a new outbreak in Manila, including a few cases of the newer strains that have everyone worried.

One result is that, if you want to travel to Manila, you have to get the expensive (100 dollar) test. This will make our rice deliveries a lot more expensive.

And travelers to the Philippines are essentially banned too:

this is bad: We had started to reopen a bit and now are back in lockdown, although our town is still semi open.

as for getting the shot: Duh. They finally started giving them to high risk workers. A good start: 300 thousand got the shot, but remember, there are over 10 million in the Manila area.

Most of our relatives in the US either got the vaccine because they are caregivers etc. and the others have started getting the vaccines.

My daughter in law, a caregiver, got it, but my son only got one shot: He said you can go in and get it in Walmart, but didn't go into details.

Well, anyway, they are spending their Easter Vacation visiting her family in Mexico. He had to get a test right before going in order to enter that country, and he said he'll have to get the test repeated to get back into the US.

Kuya's mom is in a independent living home, since she can't care for herself in her home, but has deteriorated and they said she has to transfer to a nursing home. She is resisting, so they are trying to get her declared incompetent.

If this happens, and she doesn't want to go to a nursing home, another option is to come here to the Philippines, where we can take care of her in the day and hire a night time caregiver. And probably have to hire a new cook, since she hates our cook Dita's cooking.

She has had the shots, so no problem there, but how will she travel? It's a terrible flight from the US to Manila: two hours to the hub airport, twelve hours to the linking airport in Asia (Japan, Korea or China) and another 4 to Manila. Then a four hour drive to here.

I started urging her to come here two years ago, but now she is in such bad shape I worry about the trip. One of the grandkids is a nurse and could accompany her, but still I worry.

And of course, her medical care is not paid for in the Philippines: so far she has refused dialysis, but she might have to face getting it in the future. If she need dialysis, it will cost her 100 each dialysis at the local hospital.

I'm doing fine: I still walk outside with the dogs and we have a huge garden, but no church or shopping in the mall: And recently, I stay inside most of the time: not just because covid but because of my asthma and it is now hot season.

IT might be awhile before we get the shot in our area... but like the travel instruction, the news changes frequently.

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