BY VICTOR REYES and JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR
QUARANTINE control points (QCPs) were setup yesterday in the boundaries of Rizal, Laguna, Cavite, and Bulacan as the government reimplements the NCR (National Capital Region) Plus travel bubble in an attempt to contain the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
The QCPs, or checkpoints, were put up five days before the NCR goes into the strictest enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from August 6 to 20 amid the increasing number of COVID-19 cases caused by the highly-transmissible Delta variant.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the travel restriction was necessary to prevent NCR residents from traveling to the provinces to avoid strict movement restrictions during the two-week lockdown.
“If you are not going to do this, people from the National Capital Region will leave, those with (the) Delta variant will leave and go to other areas, so it will still spread. We have to do this to break the chain of transmission of (the) Delta variant,” Año said.
“We will have an ECQ from Aug. 6 to 20 but on the interim we’re having a GCQ with additional heightened restrictions, including interzonal travels,” said Año, a key member of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).
He assured, thought, that there will be no impediments in the movement of cargos, food, medicine, essential goods under the NCR Plus travel restriction.
Año said personnel from the PNP, Armed Forces, Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fire Protection have also been deployed to man fixed, mobile and random checkpoints at the borders of Bulacan and Pampanga and Nueva Ecija, Rizal and Quezon, Laguna and Batangas and Quezon, and Cavite and Batangas.
He reminded the publilc that only Authorized Persons Outside Residence (APORs) will be allowed to pass through the checkpoints. The APORs include medical frontliners, and personnel from permitted industries.
Año said those who spent their weekend in the provinces will be allowed to enter the NCR Plus bubble and return to their residences in the coming days so they will not be stranded.
Lt. Gen. Israel Ephraim Dickson, commander of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield, said the first day of the implementation of the NCR Plus travel bubble was marred by a traffic congestion in Bulacan. He said he expects traffic to worsen in the succeeding days because of the QCPs “so those who want to go out of Metro Manila, unless they are APORs, avoid going out and remain in your residences.”
He said non-APORs will likewise be prevented from going inside the NCR Plus bubble, but admitted their priority are those who are going out of Metro Manila to prevent the spread of the virus to other provinces.
Dickson said APORs going in and out of the NCR Plus bubble only need to present their identification cards, and certification of employment and similar documents at the checkpoint to prove their travels are essential.
“At the moment, the QCPs are at the borders of Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite with adjoining provinces but once we move to ECQ starting August 6, checkpoints will now be located inside Metro Manila,” said Año.
Año said the implementation of the ECQ has four objectives: shutdown of the mobility of people to break the transmission chain, ramp up vaccination, purrsue an aggressive and intensive contact tracing and have additional or enhanced healthcare infrastructure.
Año said additional policemen will be posed in markets, supermarkets and in areas where government financial aid will be distributed to prevent the spread of the virus.
CQs
President Duterte has downgraded the quarantine classification of Cebu province to general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions and placed the provinces of Apayao, Aklan and Laguna under the stricter modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) until the middle of the month, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said yesterday.
Roque said the decision of the President stemmed from the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to reclassify Cebu Province to GCQ with heightened restrictions from MECQ, Apayao from GCQ to MECQ, and Laguna and Aklan from GCQ with heightened restrictions to MECQ from August 1 to August 15.
Last Friday, Malacañang announced Metro Manila will be under the strictest ECQ from August 6 to 20 to contain the spread of the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant.
Metro Manila is under GCQ with heightened restrictions until August 5 to give affected communities a chance to prepare for the lockdown.
The ECQ imposed in Iloilo province, Iloilo City, Cagayan de Oro City and Gingoog City will remain until August 7, while MECQ is imposed until August 15 in Ilocos Norte and Bataan and the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.
GCQ with heightened restrictions is imposed from August 1 to 15 in the provinces of Antique, Bulacan, Cagayan, Capiz, Cavite, Davao del Norte, Davao de Oro, Davao Occidental, Ilocos Sur, Laguna, Misamis Oriental, Naga City, Negros Oriental, Rizal and Zamboanga del Sur; and on the cities of Bacolod, Butuan, Davaoand Lucena City.
The regular GCQ is imposed from August 1 to 30 in the provinces of Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Batangas, Davao Oriental, Davao del Sur, Dinagat Islands, Guimaras, Isabela, Negros Occidental, North Cotabato, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Quezon, Puerto Princesa, Sarangani, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga Sibugay.
The cities of Baguio, Cotabato, General Santos, Santiago, and Zamboanga are under the regular GCQ from August 1 to 30, while the rest of the country is under the modified general community quarantine for the whole month of August.
Roque said yesterday that the IATF has also approved the shortening of the interval period between detection to isolation/quarantine to less than five days amid the local transmission of the Delta variant.
He said this means that the conduct of active case finding in all areas, with priorities on clustering and tracing of close contacts of suspect, probable, and confirmed cases should be done within 24 hours of detection of a case to ensure the immediate isolation/quarantine and testing of cases and close contacts.
Rapid antigen tests would be used for confirmation of suspect/probable case and close contacts, while the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing will be used on those who turned negative on rapid antigen testing.
Areas with case increases or clustering by the local government units (LGUs) and regional epidemiological surveillance units shall be identified and samples obtained from persons in these areas shall be submitted for sequencing to the Epidemiology Bureau and UP-Philippine Genome Center within seven days of collection of samples.
Roque said workplaces and establishments should also conduct daily health and exposure screening, report identified cases and close contacts to concerned LGU and coordinate with concerned LGU for investigation and response, as well as consider providing incentives in workplaces to encourage reporting and adherence to isolation/quarantine.
IATF Resolution 130-D tapped the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to oversee the implementation of the protocols in the workplaces and establishments.
Roque said the IATF also approved the following to contain the spread of COVID-19 especially the Delta variant: giving priority to facility-based isolation than home quarantine to prevent household transmission, make available and accessible health care capacities and systems in preparation for case spikes, ramping up of vaccination among Priority Groups A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (with comorbidities) populations with parallel efforts of vaccinating the A4 (frontliners) population, if resources are adequate; strict enforcement of border control protocols at all ports of entry, continuous assessment of the COVID-19 situation at all levels, and dissemination of information on the variants of concern and expected actions to be undertaken by individuals, establishments and implementers.
IATF Resolution 130-D also directed concerned agencies to ensure that needed logistics as indicated in the COVID-19 Surge Plan are secured and pre-positioned/readily accessible, including review of available supplies of ventilation requirements, oxygen tanks, regulators and canisters, and stockpiles of personal protective equipment and medicines.
It also instructed the National Task Force Vaccine Cluster to ensure sufficient vaccine supply of up to 4 million doses for the NCR, and 2.5 million doses for Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal.
It also directed LGUs to set up a triage and referral systems that will enable assessment of cases for swift management at the appropriate facility.
National Task Force against COVID-19 spokesman Restituto Padilla Jr. said public transportation will likely be allowed by the national government during the ECQ period to accommodate those travelling for the vaccination program.
He said while the ECQ is in place, the vaccination program will be ramped up. Metro Manila is eyeing the vaccination of at least 250,000 individuals daily, while the national government is eyeing the vaccination of 500,000 to 750,000 persons daily.
