UNDERSTANDING COVID-19 DISPERSION IN THE FILIPINO SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT

This study aims to discover the sociocultural factors affecting the disease dispersion pattern of the COVID-19 in the Philippines. This is an ecological study where the unit of observation is the cases of COVID-19 in the country. The cases compared was defined in various ways to create an explanation of the dispersion pattern of COVID-19 in the country. Data was taken from the official reports of the Philippine Department of Health as of March 13, 2020, on the 52 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. Data gathered from the reports were age, sex, existing diseases, acquisition (local or international), proximity to carrier and health status. Results revealed that older male Filipinos are at higher risk of acquiring COVID-19 with prognosis defined by certain culturally-related diseases. The dispersion of the disease in the country is further compounded by the sociocultural context the Filipinos are in.