INTERIOR Secretary Eduardo Año on Monday said Quezon City and the province of Rizal may remain under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) after May 15 due to the high number of COVID-19 infections in their jurisdictions.
Año, a member of the Inter-agency Task Force for the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID),
said the decision on which provinces or regions will remain under ECQ will be known either on May 10 or 11.
“The areas that will remain are the areas where there are high number of COVID-19 cases, where community transmission continues like Quezon City, it’s still high,” Año said in Filipino, adding: “In the Calabarzon area, there are provinces where the number is high, like Rizal.”
Sunday figures showed that aside from Rizal, other provinces in the Calabarzon region which have high infection cases are Laguna (333) and Cavite (277).
“So ‘yun ang mga lugar na binabantayan natin pero pwede rin kasi na pagdating ng after May 16 ay pupunta naman tayo sa localized ECQ. Pwedeng hindi na buong probinsiya ang naka-ECQ kundi papunta na tayo sa mga barangays or munisipalidad or component city na lang ang naka-lockdown (So these are the areas that we are monitoring. It is possible though, that after May 16 we will shift to localized ECQ. It’s possible an entire province will no longer be under ECQ but only barangays, municipalities or component cities which will be on lockdown),” Año said.
Año said that under a localized ECQ setting, government can focus its resources on the specific barangay, municipality or component city.
On Sunday, DILG undersecretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya said the status of Metro Manila, except parts of Quezon City, will likely be reclassified after May 15 to general community quarantine (GCQ) where more relaxed rules will be in place and the resumption of specific businesses are already allowed.
Malacañang announced Albay province and the city of Zamboanga have been included in the list of areas under ECQ.
A memorandum, signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on May 2, read that an “enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is hereby implemented in the entire geographic area encompassed by the boundaries of Albay Province and Zamboanga City, effective 12 midnight until 1:59 m of 15 May 2020.”
The inclusion was approved by the President upon the recommendations of the inter-agency task force.
Año said the government is assessing the COVID-19 situation on a daily basis and said a decision will be out either on Sunday or Monday as to the areas which will remain under ECQ.
“By May 10 or May 11, we’ll know if there will be areas that will be extended. We want a downgrade of these areas to GCQ so we can recover and the people can go back to work. We just have to really observe minimum health standards,” he said.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said science, economy and data on the status of COVID-19 cases in the country will be the leading factors that the President and the IATF will consider in deciding to reclassify ECQ areas into GCQ or sustain the strict quarantine in select “hot spots” in the country.
He said the medical capacity of the area to treat those who will contract the disease will also be considered. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
