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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider 'Pabalik-balik tayo': Vaccine czar still wants stringent restrictions despite ease to MECQ

'Pabalik-balik tayo': Vaccine czar still wants stringent restrictions despite ease to MECQ

Published Aug 20, 2021 12:03 pm

Although the national government decided to ease the quarantine restrictions in the National Capital Region (NCR), Laguna, and Bataan to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) until Aug. 31, residents in these areas should still anticipate the implementation of strict pandemic rules to address the continuous rise of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases.

Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and chief implementer of National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 (File photo/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, lamented Friday, Aug. 20, the re-imposition of some areas to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the past two weeks because of the surge of cases.

"We will try to impose stringent control kasi mahirap na pabalik-balik tayo sa (because it's hard to re-impose) ECQ. It's not sustainable," he said.

The task force chief said granular lockdowns -- or the placement of a particular establishment, barangay, street, or city under lockdown instead of a region-wide clamp -- would be pushed under MECQ.

Police and military personnel will also make rounds to ensure that people outside of their homes for essential travel are wearing face masks, face shields, and observing social distancing, he noted.

According to Galvez, the NTF, Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), as well as the concerned LGUS including the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) have agreed to impose "more stringent" rules despite the relaxation of quarantine restrictions in NCR, Laguna, and Bataan.

"Napagkasunduan namin na (We agreed that) it is a different thing. It is more stringent and talagang (indeed) we will impose the minimum health standards," he said.

The national government announced that NCR, Laguna, and Bataan will ease to MECQ until Aug. 31 after it was placed under ECQ for the past two weeks.

NCR and Laguna were placed under ECQ, the strictest form of lockdown, until Friday while Bataan would be under ECQ until Sunday.

Galvez expects that the new quarantine status will help arrest the surge of cases in the three areas.

"Based on our experience, kung susunod lang ang tao at ma-i-impose ang rules sa workplace at personal obedience maganda ang result noon. I am very confident na mako-control natin ang exponential increase ng mga cases (Based on our experience, if the people will just obey and the rules in the workplace and personal obedience will be observed, the result will be good. I am very confident that we can control the exponential increase in our cases)," he said.

The country tallied 14,985 fresh cases on Thursday, a new record for the second most number of infections logged in a single day.

Related Tags

mecq Laguna 8202021 NCR bataan Carlito Galvez Jr. vaccine czar ntf against covid-19
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