METRO MAYORS RECOMMEND DOWNGRADE OF LOCKDOWN
The mayors of Metro Manila have recommended downgrading the lockdown in the metropolis to general community quarantine, but with stricter enforcement of rules on business and public health to suppress the spread of the new coronavirus that causes the severe respiratory illness COVID-19.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque confirmed on Monday that the 17 mayors recommended the downgrade but declined to disclose the final recommendation of the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to President Duterte.
“For Metro Manila and the four provinces, let’s just say the [task force] and [the] Metro Manila mayors were unanimous in their recommendation to the President,” Roque told a news briefing.
Duterte to decide
Mr. Duterte was expected to announce on Monday night whether to extend a two-week lockdown in Metro Manila and the surrounding provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal that was to expire on Tuesday.
The region was reverted to modified enhanced community quarantine two weeks ago after the medical community pleaded for a “timeout” to curb surging coronavirus infections and review the country’s response to the pandemic.
Mr. Duterte, who was in Davao City, was to meet with key task force members online as a precaution, after Interior
Secretary Eduardo Año disclosed that he experienced flulike symptoms and returned a positive test on Saturday.
Año and other Cabinet officials were present when Mr. Duterte last addressed the nation on Aug. 10.
The home affairs chief, who was helping to spearhead the government’s coronavirus response, was first diagnosed with COVID-19 in March, but he did not show any signs of the disease at the time.
Earlier, Malacañang said it was “highly unlikely” that Metro Manila would remain under lockdown because the government had no more funds to give financial assistance to citizens who had lost their jobs as a result of the closure of businesses.
More public transport
Downgrading the lockdown in Metro Manila to general community quarantine would allow the reopening of more businesses under strict health measures and the resumption of public transport on limited capacity.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority General Manager Jose Arturo Garcia said the Metro Manila Council, which is composed of the 17 mayors and top national and local officials, wanted to “restrict economic activity” while “opening as much public transport as is available.”
“The more limited transport you have, the more you will not be able to do physical distancing,” Garcia said. “For us, it’s OK to adjust the public transportation this time around. We want the economic activity restricted [but] we want public transportation up again so workers can report for duty [and] we can kick-start our economy again.”
Garcia said the mayors also wanted a uniform curfew of 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. across the metropolis, instead of the varying prohibitions prevailing in the cities.
The council met on Sunday, two days before the end of the Metro Manila lockdown.
Garcia said the council agreed that the two-week lockdown had helped to curb the spread of the new coronavirus in the metropolis, even though the Department of Health (DOH) kept reporting record-high increases in infections.
Metro Manila is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the Philippines, accounting for more than 90,000 of the more than 160,000 confirmed infections in the country.
On Monday, the DOH reported 3,314 additional infections, pushing the national total to 164,474 cases, 49,034 of them active.
Metro Manila still had the largest number of additional cases, 1,918, followed by Laguna, with 274; Cavite, 219; Rizal, 118; and Bulacan, 105.
The DOH said 237 more patients had recovered, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors in the country to 112,759. But 18 more patients had died, raising the death toll to 2,681.