A bitter pill for the Philippines’ largest island as lockdown returns to Luzon
Tens of millions of people in and around the Philippines’ capital went back into a strict two-week lockdown yesterday.
The measures in Luzon, an island that includes Manila, were reinstated after a prominent professional body said health care could collapse.
“It’s a bitter but necessary pill, given the plight of our medical front-liners,” said Francis Lim, president of the Management Association of the Philippines.
“We hope the government will deep-dive into our Covid-19 strategy and find more effective ways to execute it.”
Mr Lim issued the statement after the number of recorded infections in the country broke records for four days in a row.
As cases surged past 110,000, Luzon’s 27 million inhabitants were told to stay at home unless they needed to buy essential goods, exercise or work.
With only 24 hours’ notice of the shutdown, many found themselves stranded in Manila and unable to return to their home towns after public transport ground to a halt and domestic flights were grounded.
“We’ve run out of money. We can’t leave the airport because we don’t have any relatives here,” said Ruel Damaso, 36, a construction worker trying to return to the southern city of Zamboanga.
“We will have to stay here for two weeks until we get our flights back.”
The move threatens incomes and hopes of reviving a once-dynamic economy as authorities take action to stem the spread of infection.
Before the pandemic, the Philippines had one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies, but tough restrictions from mid-March to May pushed it to the brink of recession.
Hopes for a swifter recovery look bleak, with the return of stricter safety measures likely to squeeze commerce.
As of yesterday, the number of coronavirus infections reported in the Philippines was 112,593, a figure that includes 2,115 deaths.
More than 18 million people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus since it appeared in China last year and the pandemic shows no sign of slowing.