MANILA, Philippines — New quarantine responses, including possible granular lockdowns in Metro Manila, are still up for the approval of President Rodrigo Duterte, the Palace reminded the public Sunday morning.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque issued the reminder in a message to reporters Sunday morning.
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Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said over the weekend that the government’s coronavirus task force has approved the implementation of a granular lockdown system starting Wednesday, September 8, with the National Capital Region as its pilot area
The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases recommends policy but the president may still overrule their suggestions as he did in January, when he overturned the task force's decision to allow minors back into shopping malls.
Duterte has generally approved the IATF's recommendations.
What's a 'granular' lockdown?
Under a granular lockdown system, specific establishments, streets, or barangays with high infection numbers will be placed under lockdown instead of the province-wide or city-wide quarantine restrictions being implemented.
Large-scale quarantine restrictions over entire regions have been the norm for the national government and the IATF since the coronavirus-induced community quarantines began, with granular lockdowns being a lower-level initiative offloaded to local governments.
These lockdowns covering smaller areas have actually long been implemented on the local government level. Quezon City, for example, has been declaring areas under Special Concern Lockdown as early as May 2020.
Lopez said that food would be provided to those in hard lockdown areas, while more businesses will be allowed to open and operate at different capacities depending on the level of granular lockdown imposed in the surrounding area.
Health protocols like wearing face masks, face shields, distancing and ventilation would still have to be observed.
Both the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Philippine National Police have expressed support for the proposal.
The Palace earlier said that the OCTA Research Group's proposal to impose three-week hard lockdowns in select areas in the capital region was "not doable" as its goal was to avoid adding to the number of hungry Filipinos.
For their part, Metro Manila mayors said earlier this week that cities should first reach critical vaccination targets before looking to implement new policies relating to their pandemic response.
To date, health authorities have recorded 2.06 million coronavirus infections in the country, 157,646 of whom are still classified as active cases.
It has been 537 days since the first enhanced community quarantine was hoisted in some parts of Luzon to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
— Franco Luna with reports from The STAR/Alexis Romero and Louella Desiderio