The government will only implement either enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) or general community quarantine (GCQ) with alert levels in Metro Manila following its approval of guidelines for granular lockdowns.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque announced on Friday that the country’s Covid-19 response task force “provisionally” approved the guidelines for the implementation of the alert level system in Metro Manila.
“Dalawa na lang po ang classification natin ha, iyong kapag ECQ, iyan po ay ipapataw po ng IATF. Pero kung hindi po ECQ, ang classification po ay GCQ,” Roque said in his virtual presser, referring to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases.
“Pero ang pagkakaiba po niyan, hindi po iyan GCQ na alam na natin kung paano mapapatupad. Ang GCQ pong ito ay nakabase po doon sa alert level na nakapataw sa iba’t ibang siyudad at munisipiyo,” he added.
Metro Manila was supposed to shift to GCQ on Sept. 8, but Roque said the government had yet to finalize guidelines for the implementation of granular lockdowns. Roque apologized for announcing flip-flopping quarantine impositions.
The guidelines have yet to be finalized as of Friday, Roque said, but details on each alert level were already present.
At alert level 1, Roque said the majority of restrictions aside from the wearing of face masks and face shields and social distancing protocols would be removed.
At alert level 2, government offices will be limited to 50 percent capacity.
Like alert level 2, local government units are responsible for setting mobility restrictions at alert level 3, which will only allow 30 percent of the workforce in offices.
Alert level 4 is being mulled for Metro Manila, Roque said. At alert level 4, offices are allowed to be occupied up to 20 percent, individuals aged below 18 and over 65 are prohibited from going outside their residences, and dine-ins, mass gatherings and non-essential travel are barred.
Interior Undersecretary Epimaco Densing said guidelines for alert level 3 had yet to be finalized. John Ezekiel J. Hirro