The government is working on guidelines for areas to be placed under “new normal,” the lowest among quarantine classifications, Malacañang said on Monday.
While it has yet to be determined if the classification would be used for the next set of quarantine categories, Palace spokesman Harry Roque said the “new normal” classification was already “approved in principle.
Being the least restrictive among classifications, Roque said the guidelines wouldn’t be complicated and would only include dos and don’ts.
“It has been approved in principle po talaga na magkakaroon na ng deklarasyon ng new normal areas, pero ang binubuo lang po ngayon iyong mga ‘dos and don’ts’ sa new normal kasi baka naman magkaroon ng new normal bigla silang magkaroon ng rock concert,” he said in a Palace briefing.
In September last year, Roque said areas in the country that had recorded zero Covid-19 cases for a month would be put under new normal.
The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases removed the “new normal” classification in June last year. Since then, the government has retained the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), modified ECQ, general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified GCQ classifications.
Current quarantine classifications are set to expire on Jan. 31.
The country has 502,736 Covid-19 cases as of Jan. 18. John Ezekiel J. Hirro