MANILA – Unlike in Luzon, there is no need yet to place Visayas and Mindanao under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
According to Panelo yesterday, several local chief executives in Visayas and Mindanao have already implemented ECQ in their respective jurisdictions, which prevented the entry and eventual spread of COVID-19.
“Sa ngayon po makikita natin kahit na ‘yung Visayas hindi masyado naapektuhan sapagkat ‘yung mga gobernador doon, mga mayors nagkaroon sila ng mga sariling lockdown that early. Nung wala pang infected nagla-lockdown na sila kaya walang nakakapasok na meron,” Panelo said yesterday.
“Sa madaling sabi ‘yung Visayas at sa Mindanao ay depende po sa sitwasyon. Pero sa ngayon, sa tingin natin ay hindi kailangan,” he added.
Cabinet Secretary, Karlo Nograles, spokesman of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, for his part, added that expanding Luzon’s ECQ to Visayas and Mindanao is still not part of their plans now.
“Right now, there’s no need for enhanced community quarantine in Visayas and Mindanao,” Nograles said. “But the task force will be monitoring the trends in the region day by day, week by week.”
Although ECQ is not recommended in Visayas and Mindanao, social and physical distancing should still be practiced to avoid the possible transmission of COVID-19.
“Kailangan pa rin ang social distancing. The new normal is social, physical distancing pa din,” Nograles said. “Kapag wala ang disiplinang ‘yan, useless lang ang sakripisyo natin.”
“Kapag nagkaroon na ng vaccine about diyan sa virus, we can go back to the old normal,” the Cabinet Secretary added.
President Rodrigo Duterte on April 6 approved the recommendation to extend the Luzon-wide ECQ until the end of this month in a bid to further curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
With the ECQ extension, movement of 57 million people living in Luzon will remain severely restricted. People are only being allowed to leave their homes for essential activities like buying food.
The ECQ caused the government to cough up more than P270 billion in social assistance funds for the poorest of the poor and low-income households in the country./PN
