(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte placed under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) Metro Manila and the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and Bulacan, from the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) protocol which ends Tuesday, Aug. 18.
President Duterte made the announcement on Monday night, Aug. 17, a day before the end of the MECQ protocols in the Philippine capital and surrounding provinces.
These areas join other provinces and cities previously placed under GCQ, namely Nueva Ecija, Batangas, Quezon in Luzon; and Iloilo City, Cebu City, Lapu Lapu City, Mandaue City, Talisay City, the municipalities of Minglanilla and Consolacion in Cebu province for the Visayas.
The rest of the country are placed under Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ), with some provinces, highly urbanize cities and independent component cities with strict enforcement of local action.
Presidential Spokesperson Secretary Harry Roque, Jr., assured that the two weeks of MECQ in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal had been used to address rising COVID-19 cases in these areas by setting up additional COVID-19 beds in hospitals, such as the additional 250 beds at the East Avenue Medical Center, which he said would improve the numbers for the country’s health care capacity.
He also announced how the setting up of a ‘One Hospital Command” by Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega had made it possible to refer COVID-19 cases to hospitals where there are available beds for cases.
Mild COVID-19 cases were referred to isolation and treatment centers. Only severel and critical cases are accepted in hospitals under the system.
Roque stressed the importance of opening up the economy at this point, while making sure that the health community protocols for community lockdowns in areas with high COVID-19 cases would be implemented even in GCQ and MGCQ areas.
The return to GCQ of Metro Manila and surrounding provinces that had been placed earlier under MECQ for two weeks was the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), he said.
The National Task Force (NTF) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) are directed to ensure that areas flagged for local action shall implement strict lockdown of areas in line with the Zoning Containment Strategy, strict enforcement of minimum public health standards, and intensified tracing and quarantine of close contacts and isolation of confirmed cases, Malacanang earlier said.
