Dine-in restaurants, barbershops, salons, gyms, and other businesses have been ordered to temporarily shut down as Metro Manila and other nearby provinces were placed under the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) by President Rodrigo Duterte from Aug. 4 to 18.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said that MECQ for the next 15 days would “allow these businesses to sufficiently prepare for better processes and facilities for compliance to the health standards when they soon reopen.”
“In the difficulty of balancing health and the economy, the latest pronouncement of President Rodrigo Duterte is a temporary step back to heed the call of medical practitioners,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.
“We believe in the wisdom of our President to temporarily institute stricter measures under the [MECQ] to prevent the growing number of cases, especially in the last five days,” he added.
Other businesses including tutorial and review centers, internet cafes, art schools, cinemas, libraries, cultural centers, tourist destinations, travel agencies, live events, and businesses that offer full-body massages, tattoo and body piercing are not allowed under the MECQ.
Cockpits, beerhouses, kid amusement centers and similar businesses are also not allowed under any form of community quarantine.
“We wish that this move back to MECQ will break the increasing trend of positive COVID cases and will eventually allow us to bring back the much-needed livelihood and jobs to many of our countrymen,” Lopez said.
For a complete list of business establishments allowed to operate in any form of community quarantine, click here. Francis David T. Perez