Task Force studying selective quarantine

MANILA, Philippines — The government is studying a “selective quarantine” in Luzon, but it is still considering its impact on public health and security.

“A selective qaurantine is probable, but it is still early to say whether it would be implemented because of health and security aspects,” a Malacañang official said yesterday.

On Sunday, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the national policy on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), said the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine may be eased into a “selective” quarantine if the Philippines sees an increase in health capacity and recovery rate and a decrease in fatality rate.

He said the selective quarantine may also be adopted if the Luzon-wide quarantine, which started on March 17 and will end on April 30, is implemented properly and massive tests are conducted.

Cabinet Secretary and Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases spokesman Karlo Nograles said there is a need to show accurately how existing mechanisms operate and how they would benefit the country’s health, safety, security, economic and social dimensions.

“When Secretary Galvez said that, that is probable, but is it final? Not yet, because ultimately we have to come up with a game plan with what happens after April 30, and ultimately, we need the approval of President Duterte,” Nograles said at a press briefing.

He said he and Galvez cannot preempt the decision of agencies handling the COVID-19 crisis.

“The IATF is not just Secretary Galvez and myself, there are plenty other Cabinet secretaries in the IATF and other high-ranking officials all discussing the probable,” Nograles said.

Some business groups have called for the gradual lifting of the Luzon-wide quarantine, which has affected more than 57 million residents and forced thousands of businesses to suspend operations.

The National Economic and Development Authority has estimated that the COVID-19 pandemic may slow economic growth to 4.3 percent or even contract the Philippine economy by 0.6 percent this year if mitigation measures are not adopted.

About 116,000 to 1.8 million jobs in the Philippines may be lost because of the disease, which has so far infected more than 4,000 people in the country.

Nograles said he agreed with Galvez that the lockdown played a significant role in preventing the spread of the disease.

“If President Duterte did not declare a lockdown, it would have been much, much worse for the Philippines. Take a look at the other countries, they are richer and look at their numbers,” he said.

“Some people who were even saying it’s OA (overacting), you can only imagine how overstretched we are if we did not immediately declare an ECQ (enhanced community quarantine),” he added.