More than a hundred households have been placed under the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) and Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) due to the clustering of COVID-19 cases in a barangay in Baras, Rizal.
The Baras Municipal Government, in a Facebook post, said that having five confirmed cases and five suspected cases has prompted the local government’s task force on COVID-19 to place five households in Sitio Ibabaw in Barangay San Juan under Critical Zone equivalent to ECQ, and 116 households in the same barangay, under Containment Zone or MECQ until June 1, 2021.
Residents in the four ECQ households are strictly prevented from going out of their houses with only the Barangay Health Workers doing the errands of buying essentials for them. Food packs are being distributed to the residents since their lockdown on May 19.
Meanwhile, the 116 households which are under MECQ will also have to wait for another week before the quarantine restrictions ease in their area. Only above 20 years old and below 60 years old are allowed to go out but they must be a holder of quarantine pass for them to be able to buy their essentials.
As of May 24, there were 56 active cases, 679 recoveries, and 26 deaths out of the total of 761 confirmed cases in Baras.