HAPPY days are here again with less than a year to go before elections. Negros Oriental, with its super-intense political rivalry between Gov. Roel Degamo and Rep. Arnie Teves of the Third District, is seeing daily mass gatherings of people - majority of whom probably join the events in the hope of receiving a dole out. Times are hard and a free face mask (with the politician's picture), rice, canned goods or free medicines are welcome gifts for a household on a tight budget.
People, while wearing face masks, sit shoulder-to-shoulder in many of these events. Negros Oriental tops Central Visayas (Region 7) in terms of new Covid-19 cases and a positivity rate hovering around 20 percent. The 2.31-percent case fatality rate remains below the region's average (3.48 percent), but the bad news is that the hospitals - all located in Dumaguete City - have reached, if not breached, their full capacity. There are hospitals outside the city, but they are reportedly neither equipped nor staffed to handle Covid-19 patients.
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