After 45 days under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ, President Rodrigo Duterte has placed Cebu City under the less stringent general community quarantine (GCQ), leaving it up to local government units (LGUs) to impose stricter lockdowns in zones.
In a taped broadcast aired on Friday morning, Duterte also announced that Metro Manila would have its GCQ extended until Aug. 15 amid the continuous rise in infections.
The following areas will also remain under GCQ until Aug. 15:
- Metro Manila
- Bulacan
- Batangas
- Cavite
- Laguna
- Rizal
- Lapu-Lapu City
- Mandaue
- Zamboanga City
- Talisay City
- Minglanilla
- Consolacion
The rest of the country will be under modified GCQ.
Duterte announces new quarantine protocols every two weeks, the same time span as the incubation period of the novel coronavirus which causes Covid-19.
Localized lockdowns
Metro Manila and Calabarzon were tasked to implement strict localized lockdowns or ECQ in areas with high risk of community transmission and barangays accounting for 80 percent of total local infections.
Government hospitals in the two regions were directed to increase the capacity of Covid-19-dedicated beds by 30-50 percent, while private hospitals were ordered to increase theirs by 20-30 percent.
Additionally, LGUs were required to submit daily updates and weekly reports on the daily trend of active cases, number and proportion of the population and number of cases in community isolation facilities, health facilities and undergoing home quarantine for priority areas or barangays under localized lockdowns.
The reports, Palace spokesman Harry Roque said, should contain the proporton of close contacts traced and contacts in quarantine, rate of utilization of community isolation beds, health system capacity target utilization and results of investigations by task forces.
The new community quarantine classifications were released a day after the country saw a record rise in new cases (3,954) and recoveries (38,075).
The country has 89,374 Covid-19 cases as of July 30. John Ezekiel J. Hirro