President Rodrigo Duterte on August 17 announced that Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal will be placed under general community quarantine (GCQ) starting August 19 to 31.
According to Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, Duterte has approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) to ease the lockdown restrictions—but with recalibrated government approach against the disease—following the enhanced community quarantine status from August 4 to 18.
“Ginamit po natin ‘yung dalawang linggo ng MECQ para po pag-isipan kung paano tayo magre-reboot, magre-refresh ng approach, at ito nga po ang gagamitin natin habang nagbubukas tayo ng ekonomiya,” CNN Philippines quoted him as saying.
The spokesperson added that among the government’s strategies for the next weeks include
intensified testing, scouring active cases in high-risk communities via house-to-house symptom checks, a fortified contact tracing system, and building more COVID-19 facilities.
Under the GCQ status, more industries will be permitted to reopen despite movement limitations. This includes dine-in at restaurants and religious gatherings at 30 percent capacity, provided strict safety precautions are observed.
While Metro Manila still has the majority of the number of new cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines, Roque said extension of MECQ is “highly unlikely” as the government struggles to find the funds to aid poor families affected by the pandemic.
In addition, the decision of Duterte to place the said areas under GCQ comes after the Department of Health reported 40,000 recoveries on August 16. The spike in the number of recoveries, DOH said, is based on the department’s time-based recoveries schemes—which means that patients are released from quarantine facilities without the need to take a confirmatory RT-PCR test.
