MANILA, Philippines — Minors in Metro Manila would again be banned from going out of their homes for two weeks beginning Wednesday, in a move to curb the transmission of COVID-19 in the face of a spike in cases feared to overwhelm the healthcare system.
The Metro Manila Development Authority announced this Tuesday, saying that the Metro Manila Council, which is composed of the MMDA and mayors in the capital region, is drafting a resolution prohibiting those aged 17 and below from going outdoors.
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“We are implementing age restrictions because of the increase in our COVID-19 cases,” MMDA chairman Benhur Abalos said. “The metro mayors and MMDA are regularly monitoring the COVID-19 numbers and we will implement calibration and changes on our directives depending on the figures that we have.”
Metro Manila mayors earlier allowed minors aged 15 to 17 to go out of their homes upon the prodding of the national government, which pushed to ease coronavirus restrictions in a bid to restart economic activity stalled by the pandemic.
But now faced with a spike in cases that reached a seven-month high on Monday, local governments, particularly in Metro Manila where most of the new cases have sprouted, have scrambled to reimpose restrictions that had been lifted earlier, including lockdowns, curfews and liquor bans.
READ: Here's a briefer on the uniform Metro Manila curfew
This approach has gotten the backing of Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua, who previously pushed for looser restrictions, and called the latest moves to tighten prohibitions a “good balance” between fighting a new surge and new coronavirus variants as well as permitting existing economic activities to carry on.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government has also directed local governments and the Philippine National Police to implement a “crackdown on quarantine violators” and intensify enforcement of minimum health standards in all barangays.
It also ordered the coronavirus task force’s implementing arm, the Joint Task Force COVID Shield which includes the national police and the military, to increase police deployment and strictly enforce minimum public health standards in Pasay, Malabon, Navotas, Cebu City and Cebu province, which have registered a spike in cases. — Xave Gregorio with reports from Franco Luna and Ian Nicolas Cigaral