Metro Manila will see its COVID-19 quarantine status downgraded from Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) to General Community Quarantine (GCQ) from Wednesday, paving the way for casinos and some other businesses to reopen.
The Presidential Palace said Monday that quarantine status of the National Capital Region would remain under GCQ from 8 to 30 September and subject to a pilot testing program of localized or granular lockdowns. These granular lockdowns will see local government units isolate specific buildings, streets or zones where COVID cases are spiking rather than locking down the entire city.
“During this period, the guidelines for pilot areas shall be observed, supplemented by the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) omnibus guidelines on the implementation of community quarantine in the Philippines,” said Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
“It’s only a pilot in Metro Manila … maybe a time will come that community quarantine classifications will not be needed anymore, but we are piloting this first.”
Metro Manila had been under the Philippines’ strictest Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) measures from 6 to 20 August and MECQ from 21 August until now.
The provinces of Apayao, Bataan, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Laguna, and Iloilo, and the cities of Lucena, Iloilo, and Cagayan de Oro will remain under MECQ until 30 September.
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