‘Warm’ welcome from reopened Manila malls

Manila’s malls set air conditioners to warm and switched off free Wi-Fi to stop people lingering as many of them cautiously reopened on Saturday, after a gruelling two-month lockdown.

Just a trickle of customers showed up at the huge commercial centres in the Philippine capital, which usually attract millions of people each day.

“This is good for me, good for our economy,” said Yuki Alvie Merano, 31, among the first to enter a mall, joking that shopping was “therapeutic”.