San Juan, Valenzuela, and Quezon province’s lockdowns are expected to be downgraded to general community quarantine (GCQ), Interior Secretary Eduardo Año told news television show 24 Oras last night.
The three areas are currently under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the harsher form of lockdown which is expected to end on May 15, but their COVID-19 doubling rates have slowed down significantly enough that Año thinks the quarantine could be loosened.
“San Juan’s doubling rate [of infections] has gone down; Valenzuela is also another example. That means there is a possibility that they could go under GCQ. Quezon is also OK, it’s not too [high],” Año said in English and Filipino.
However, he said that the ECQ might be extended in Rizal, Albay, Zamboanga City, Davao City, and Cebu City because of their high rate of coronavirus infections.
Read: Filipinos allowed to gather for religious events and essential work under general quarantine
“What we can do is [to quarantine] a localized area. So we can confine three or four villages or a single province or municipality so that the rest of the province can move. Other areas can be placed under GCQ so people can be allowed to work,” the secretary said.
“We are shifting our strategy from [total] lockdown to modified because we have already increased our [testing] capacity,” he added.
While still considered a lockdown, a GCQ will allow residents to work in their offices or factories, although half of a company’s staff should remain under a work from home scheme. In an ECQ, only frontliners such as grocery store workers, delivery men, and healthcare professionals are allowed to work.
Mayor Francis Zamora thanked Año in a Facebook post that appeared last night but added that San Juan will continue to be vigilant to ensure that the coronavirus will not spread in the city.
Read: Greenhills prayer room disinfected, ordered temporarily closed by Mayor Zamora
“Our local government of San Juan has been exerting all possible efforts to be able to bring down the number of positive patients and flatten the curve of COVID-19 in our city. Every day we are working very hard to identify, isolate, and treat COVID-19 patients, from asymptomatic to severe, from quarantine to isolation to further contact tracing,” Zamora said.
“Even if we are already experiencing a steady drop in the rate of CoronaVirus infections in San Juan, we will not allow to let our guard down nor lose our gains,” he said.
While Año is planning to put Valenzuela and San Juan under GCQ, the Metro Manila Council will discuss tomorrow the possibility of extending the ECQ in the entire National Capital Region up to June 15, The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports.
Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez, the council’s chair, said they will make such a suggestion to the national government because of the high number of COVID-19 cases in San Juan, Mandaluyong, Makati, and in his home city.
The Philippines currently has 10,343 reported COVID-19 cases, with 685 deaths and 1,618 recoveries.
