Duterte places Cebu City under lockdown; Metro Manila under GCQ

June 16, 2020

President Rodrigo Duterte approved on Monday night the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases placing Cebu City under the enhanced community quarantine while maintaining Metro Manila under the general community quarantine starting June 16 until end of the month as part of the measure to contain the spread of coronavirus disease.

The latest quarantine classifications of the different provinces, highly urbanized cities and independent component cities are contained in IATF Resolution 46-A, Health Secretary Francisco Duque who read the resolution during Duterte's televised public message.

"The increasing number of new cases and widespread community transmission in majority of barangays in the city, as well as consistent case doubling time of less than seven days and significant increase in critical care utilization against critical care capacity were the reasons cited why Cebu City reverted back to ECQ," said Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque in a statement after the meeting.

Talisay City, a component city of Cebu, has been placed under modified ECQ "for the same reasons," he said.

Metro Manila, the epicenter of coronavirus, has remained under GCQ.

Also placed under GCQ until the end of the month were Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Santiago City in Region II; Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Tarlac, Olongapo City in Region III; Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon in Region IV-A, and Occidental Mindoro in Region IV-B for Luzon.

For the Visayas, Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, Mandaue City, Lau-Lapu City in Region VII have been placed under GCQ.

Davao City and Zamboanga City in Mindanao have been under GCQ also.

The rest of the country have remained under modified general community quarantine until June 30.

"We are gradually easing restrictions," Duterte said.

But he reminded the public that the battle against COVID-19 is not yet over.

The President urged the people to observe minimum health standards, such as washing the hands as often as possible.

As of June 15, the Department of Health reported that there were 26,420 COVID-19 cases in the country with 6,252 recoveries and 1,098 deaths. Celerina Monte/DMS