Cebu City Back To ECQ; No Easing In Metro

There are no changes in the quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila, but Cebu City has reverted to the strictest lockdown scenario due to the rising number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases that threaten to overwhelm the city’s healthcare capacity.

- Alexis Romero

Metro Manila, which accounts for about half of the country’s COVID-19 cases, will remain under the more lenient general community quarantine (GCQ) until the end of the month.

Cebu City’s status, meanwhile, reverted to the strictest enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from GCQ because of the “increasing number of new cases” and “widespread transmission” of COVID-19 in most of its barangays, according to Resolution No. 46-A issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).

The resolution also cited the “significant increase in critical care utilization against critical care capacity” in the city, which means that its healthcare facilities are being overworked because of the increasing number of patients.

Talisay, a component city under the province of Cebu, was placed under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), the status between ECQ and GCQ, for the same reasons.

Other areas that will be under GCQ until June 30 are Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino and Santiago City in Cagayan Valley; Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Olongapo, Tarlac in Central Luzon; Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon in CALABARZON; Occidental Mindoro in MIMAROPA, all in Luzon; Bohol, Cebu province, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City in the Visayas and Davao City and Zamboanga City in Mindanao.

The rest of the country have been placed under the most relaxed modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), or just a step away from the so-called “new normal,” wherein an area is not under quarantine but is still required to observe health measures and physical distancing.