When Your Friends Become Part of the Statistics | Covid19

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### Covid19, go away. **Please.** We do not need you.

_{Abu Dhabi UAE, pre-covid19. UAE National Day (02 Dec 2019)}

It is more real as it can ever be. How many months has it been since this virus was first discovered? Six? I used to just watch the news and sincerely feel bad for the people how suffered the disease. It already tormented me. Directly or indirectly, we can all say that this pandemic affected our lives. Millions have been infected, lost their jobs, hundreds of thousands died. The economies crashed. How can we ever recover from it? Personally, I try to zone myself out from the news. I'd prefer to live in our little apartment with my family and do not think about what's happening outside and somehow keep a sense of normalcy during these weird times. **If only I could.** But how, when daily, I see people queue up here next to our villa, waiting for their turn to get tested? **How, when people I know, my friends get infected?**

https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/arrliinn/y5AqddTE-image.png _{Testing Centre next to our villa. Photo (c) @kennyroy}

### Part of the Statistics. **A friend and 3 acquaintances.** Three weeks ago, a friend was in a verge of breaking down. She had to care for three COVID-19 patients in their home before they got transferred to the hospital. **Alone.** She had to care for them on her own. All the other four in their household got infected apart from her (thanks God), so it was her who drove them to testing centres, brought them to the hospital to get admitted, got their home sanitized, etc. Thankfully, they have passed this test and are all healthy now. **Another close friend.** Today, I got news that another close friend has been admitted to the hospital. She also tested positive. Though she has been working from home for the past 2 months, there are still other people in their household who had to work outside. It breaks my heart. We were literally inseparable the past two years. My kids are so close to her. My eldest, when I told him the sad news said, **"Why her?"** I feel bad because I know she's in deep pain and discomfort. In our short exchange of messages this morning, she's mentioned about **wanting to give up** each time she gets shortness of breath due to her cough. It's not something I expect her to say. She's a tough lady. The kids sent her video messages. Hopefully, it lightened up her spirits. Though she may be battling the disease alone physically, we wanted to let her feel that we are here outside waiting for her to get better. The tallies are already alarming as they are, but when people you know get included into those numbers, it is something different. It gets **personal** somehow. ### Covid19 haven't you had enough? We all get it. You are different. You made the world turn around in a snap. We have somehow accepted that there will already be a *new normal* even if you somehow get contained. We get it. Now, please, bugger off.

I hope you, reading this right now, is feeling better than ever. Whatever we are going through is temporary. Let us look at the future with anticipation. Keep safe and keep the faith! https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/arrliinn/Y5S8g9gM-animation205.gif https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/arrliinn/dQxl4nRD-HIVEPH-arrliinn.gif _{Many thanks to @bearone for this beautiful Hiveph badge!} Join and subscribe to the HivePh Community : Supporting Filipinos Worldwide Join us in Discord.
Originally posted here: https://hive.blog/hive-148441/@arrliinn/when-your-friends-become-part-of-the-statistics-or-covid19