MANILA, Philippines (Updated July 16, 1:50 p.m.) — President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the pandemic task force's recommendation to keep Metro Manila under General Community Quarantine until July 31 but additional restrictions will no longer be implemented, Malacañang announced Thursday.
Some areas, however, will be under "GCQ with heightened restrictions" until July 22, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement.
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In a separate statement released on Friday, Roque said the task force moved to place several areas under the most stringent Enhanced Community Quarantine until the end of July.
"The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) escalated the community quarantine classification of Iloilo Province and Iloilo City from Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) until July 22, 2021 to Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) until July 31, 2021," he said.
Cagayan de Oro and the City of Gingoog in the province of Misamis Oriental were also shifted to ECQ until the end of the month.
Restrictions in Misamis Oriental were also heightened, shifting from the most lenient modified GCQ to GCQ "with heightened restrictions" until July 31.
GCQ "with heightened restrictions" was also extended in Antique was also extended until the end of the month.
"The reclassification was made upon the recommendations of the Department of Health, its Technical Advisory Group, and the Technical Working Group on COVID-19 Variants," Roque said.
Health authorities earlier Friday said they detected 16 more cases of the highly infectious Delta variant, 11 of which are "local."
Earlier this week, experts from OCTA Research urged the government to keep Metro Manila under general community quarantine for the rest of July, citing the threat of the highly infectious Delta variant of COVID-19.
Enhanced Community Quarantine
Cagayan de Oro
City of Gingoog
Iloilo City
Iloilo province
Modified ECQ
Butuan City
Davao Occidental
Davao de Oro and Davao del Sur
Davao del Norte
'General Community Quarantine with heightened restrictions' until July 22
Aklan
Antique (until July 31)
Bacolod
Cagayan province
Capiz
Laguna
Lucena
Misamis Oriental (until July 31)
Naga City
GCQ until July 31
Agusan del Norte
Agusan del Sur
Apayao
Baguio City
Bulcan
Cavite
Cotabato
Cotabato City
Davao Oriental
Dinagat Islands
General Santos City
Guimaras
Negros Occidental
Isabela province
NCR
Nueva Ecija
Quirino
Puerto Princesa
Quezon
Batangas
Rizal
Santiago City
Saranggani
South Cotobato
Sultan Kudarat
Surigao del Sur
Zamboanga City
Zamboanga Sibugay
Zamboanga del Norte
All other areas will be under Modified General Community Quarantine, Roque said.
It has been 488 days since parts of the country were first placed under lockdown. The Philippines has the second-worst coronavirus outbreak in Southeast Asia, trailing behind Indonesia with 1.49 million cases and 26,314 deaths as of Tuesday. — Bella Perez-Rubio