Muntinlupa Mayor Jaime Fresnedi issued guidelines in the implementation of the new COVID-19 Alert Levels System, the new community quarantine classifications in the National Capital Region (NCR) starting Sept. 16.
Under the new classification, Metro Manila is under the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) Alert Level 4 from Sept. 16 to 30.
Fresnedi issued Executive Order No. 40 dated Sept. 15 outlining the various activities allowed and prohibited from Alert Levels 1 to 5, and the implementation of granular lockdowns in communities.
The order is based on the resolution issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the new quarantine classifications.
According to the executive order and resolution, Alert Level 1 “refers to areas wherein case transmission is low and decreasing, total bed utilization rate, and intensive care unit utilization rate is low” while Alert Level 2 pertains to “areas wherein case transmission is low and decreasing, healthcare utilization is low, or case counts are low but increasing, or case counts are low and decreasing but total bed utilization rate and intensive care unit utilization rate is increasing.”
Areas to be placed under Alert Level 3 are those “wherein case counts are high and/or increasing, with total bed utilization rate and intensive care unit utilization rate at increasing utilization,” while those to be under Alert Level 4 are “areas wherein case counts are high and/or increasing, with total bed utilization rate and intensive care unit utilization rate at high utilization.”
Alert Level 5 “refers to areas wherein case counts are alarming, with total bed utilization rate and intensive care unit utilization rate at critical utilization.”
Under Alert Level 4, according to Fresnedi, the following will not be allowed outside their residence: persons below 18 years old, persons over 65 years old, persons with immunodeficiencies, comorbidities. or other health risks, and pregnant women. But they are allowed to go out to obtain essential goods and services, and report for work in permitted industries and offices.
The mayor will have the sole authority to declare an area under granular lockdown, according to the executive order, and he may impose it on an entire barangay, individual house, street, block, purok or sitio, compound, subdivision, village and other gated communities.
Granular lockdown will be in effect for at least 14 days and persons under it will not be allowed to go out.
Exempted from this rule are healthcare workers and non-health personnel working in hospitals, laboratories and dialysis facilities, and uniformed personnel including employees of the Public Order and Safety Office, City Security Office and barangay deputized tanod tasked to implement the granular lockdown.
Other persons that will be allowed to enter and leave areas under granular lockdowns are outbound and inbound overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), residents who wish to enter the area to return to their homes, those seeking urgent medical attention as validated by the City Health Office, and those who will deliver food and other essential items but these must be unloaded at border collection points only.