President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to announce his decision on what to do regarding the current Luzon lockdown today, April 23. His decision will either be to ease, retain and extend, or lift the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine after April 30.
Screenshot from President Duterte’s Nation Address
Experts in the medical field such as former health secretaries and epidemiologists sent their recommendations of having a modified community quarantine. In this setup, the government will allow the easing of the Luzon lockdown in specific areas with few or no COVID-19 infections. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also advised the gradual lifting of quarantine restrictions.
However, special adviser to the COVID-19 national task force and health reform advocate Dr. Tony Leachon recommended that lockdown in Metro Manila should continue for another two weeks until May 15. The National Capital Region has the most number of infections in the country. Leachon added that other parts of Luzon can choose to have a modified lockdown especially those areas considered as COVID-19 hotspots like Calabarzon and Central Luzon.
These three regions contribute to the largest total of COVID-19 positive cases, which are 5,911 cases out of the 6,710 confirmed ones in the Philippines.
Still, even with this recommendation, the final decision is on the hands of the president.
Senator and former presidential aide Bong Go said that the president will make his announcement regarding this today. No other details were provided.
On March 15, a community quarantine was implemented on Metro Manila. However, the movement didn’t seem to change, which raised concerns about spread of the new coronavirus. Therefore, the president announced the implementation of a stricter enhanced community quarantine the following day. It was initially set to end on April 12 but has been extended until April 30.
With the stricter lockdown, classes remained suspended, mass transportation was temporarily shut down, and people with non-essential travel were advised to stay at home. The visibility of government security forces was increased that resulted in more than 130,000 arrests of quarantine and curfew violators.
COVID-19 inter-agency task force (IATF) spokesperson Karlos Nograles and his team also sent recommendations to the president. He said that the president will base his decision regarding Luzon lockdown on the following parameters:
- COVID-19 epidemiological curve
- the capacity of the health care system
- the social, economic, and security factors
At present, there are 6,710 COVID-19 cases in the country with 693 recoveries and 446 deaths.
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