Manila locks down 6 barangays

MANILA, Philippines — The Manila city government will place six barangays under lockdown for four days to help contain the spread of COVID-19, Mayor Isko Moreno announced yesterday.

Moreno issued an executive order placing Barangays 185 (Zone 16, Tondo 2), 374 (Zone 38, Sta. Cruz), 521 (Zone 52, Sampaloc), 628 (Zone 63, Sta. Mesa), 675 (Zone 74, Paco) and 847 (Zone 92, Pandacan) under lockdown beginning tomorrow until March 20.

He ordered the Manila Barangay Bureau to enforce lockdowns in villages with 10 or more active cases of COVID-19 and conduct disease surveillance, contact tracing, swab tests as well as rapid risk assessment.

According to the city health department data, Barangay 185 has 11 active cases, Barangays 374, 628 and 847 have 10 each, Barangay 521 has 12 and Barangay 675 has 22.

Moreno said enhanced community quarantine guidelines would be implemented in these barangays declared as “critical zones” during the lockdown period.

Police station commanders covering these barangays were directed to deploy personnel to enforce health and safety protocols.

Moreno said residents are prohibited from going out of their homes. Only those with quarantine passes and workers with valid company IDs will be allowed to go out to buy food and other essentials.

The order exempts the following: health frontliners, military and police personnel, service workers (pharmacies, drug stores and funeral homes), utility workers (energy, cable, internet, telecommunication companies, water, sanitation and transport facilities including port operations), essential workers (goods delivery, food delivery, banking and money services), barangay officials and media workers accredited by the Presidential Communications Operations Office and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

As of Sunday, there were 1,549 active cases in Manila with 28,451 recoveries and 824 deaths.

Curfew violators

Violators of quarantine restrictions in Manila will be required do physical exercises as the uniform curfew of 10 p.m.-5 a.m. started in the metropolis.

In an interview on dzMM yesterday, Manila Police District director Brig. Gen. Leo Francisco said first-time offenders would be ordered to do exercises in basketball courts.

Subsequent offenders would be fined, he added.

“As ordered by Mayor Moreno, we will have them do exercises before releasing them,” Francisco said.

He ordered police station commanders to locate basketball courts in the barangays so that violators doing exercises could still observe physical distancing measures.

Authorized persons outside of residence and those coming home from work are exempted from the curfew, Francisco said.

Metro Manila mayors have adopted a uniform curfew for two weeks to curb the surge in COVID-19 infections. – Marc Jayson Cayabyab