Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso reminded barangay officials to strictly enforce the unified curfew hours in Metro Manila, and other minimum health standards, that will be implemented starting Monday (March 15).
The Metro Manila Council (MMC) on March 11 agreed to adopt unified curfew hours from 10 p.m. - 5 a.m., starting March 15 amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases.
In a memorandum dated March 12, Domagoso said barangay officials must also promote physical distancing and the wearing of face masks and face shields.
Although no liquor ban was declared in the capital city, the local chief executive tasked barangay officials to enforce City Ordinance No. 5555 that bans drinking in public places.
"We were together in relentlessly fighting the COVID-19 virus for over a year now. By pooling together efforts and resources, we achieved remarkable milestones along the way in mitigating, if not preventing, the transmission of this dreaded virus while at the same time keeping our city's economy afloat," the memorandum read.
"Recently, however, we have seen a resurgence of COVID-19 cases not only in our city but also in other parts of Metro Manila. Other factors like the presence of variants may have contributed to it, but to a large extent, the final analysis is that we may have become complacent and had put our guards down in fighting this COVID-19 virus. There should be no letting up," it added.
The Manila mayor authorized barangay officials to patrol their areas to ensure the proper implementation of the minimum health protocols.
Domagoso also called for an emergency meeting with city department heads at the Manila City Hall on Sunday (March 14) to discuss the COVID-19 situation and the city and how to reinforce their pandemic response.
As of March 14, Manila has at least 1,549 active cases out of 30,824 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Of this number, 28,451 have recovered while 824 have died, data from the city government showed.