President Rodrigo Duterte has approved placing areas in the NCR Plus bubble under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from Monday until April 4, Malacañang said Saturday, as the country reported a record number of daily infections.
In a televised announcement which came following reports of the strict lockdown's looming implementation from various local government officials, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte approved the recommendation due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases supposedly driven by the local presence of coronavirus variants.
Duterte also wanted to ramp up contact tracing efforts and mass testing to identify the scope of the people infected with the virus, Roque said.
People aged below 18 years old and over 65 years old will not be allowed to go out, according to Roque, with curfew starting from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. in the affected areas.
Travel passes will not be required, according to Roque.
Malls, meanwhile, will be open to allow purchase of essential goods in groceries and pharmacies.
Restaurants will also be closed even if they have an al-fresco or outside dining set-up, as only take-outs orders will be allowed, according to Roque.
LAST YEAR'S RULES UNDER REVIEW
Guidelines from last year's implementation of the ECQ will be subject to review, with recommendations and amendments of the inter-agency task force's (IATF) technical working group to also be taken into consideration.
Source: ABS-CBN News
Comments