‘High-risk' Quezon City seeks transition period to GCQ after May 15
MANILA, Philippines (Update 1, 2:00 p.m.) — The Quezon City government has proposed a "transition period" to a general community quarantine until the end of the month if the enhanced community quarantine in effect over the city and the rest of Metro Manila lapses as scheduled on May 15.
Under the suggested transition period, local businesses in Quezon City would be able to return but must follow strict health protocols and “adapt to localized guidelines currently being developed in anticipation of a 'new normal' setting.”
“While the health of our residents remains our primary priority, we also need to look after the local economy, which has been affected severely by the dreaded virus,” Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said in a Friday release.
The proposal will be discussed among other matters during the meeting of Metro Manila mayors scheduled Saturday.
While it is up to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to decide whether to allow the said measure and other COVID-19-related policies, the local chief executives in the capital region may forward their respective recommendations.
If approved, Quezon City businesses would be required to report their production capacities and workforce requirements, inspect the health conditions of employees before allowing them to return to work, facilitating testing of workers, quarantining them as needed, implementing thermal scanning, enforcing social distancing and establishing disinfection schedules.
“Penalties will be imposed to those who will fail to report,” Assistant City Administrator for Operations Alberto Kimpo said in the release.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año previously said that it’s possible that some Metro Manila cities will transition to a GCQ but mentioned that Quezon City still poses a high risk.
“There are areas already in Metro Manila that are actually improving like San Juan, Valenzuela. But Quezon City is still really what we call a very...a high-risk area with over 1,000+ positive,” Año said in a Thursday interview with ANC.
“Some cities in Metro Manila may be downgraded into a GCQ but we still have eight days to go so we'll wait for the data analytics.”
According to the Quezon City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, the city has at least 1,156 COVID-19 cases as of Friday — the most in the National Capital Region.
However, based on Department of Health data as of Friday and population figures from the 2015 Census, five Metro Manila cities posted a higher rate of COVID-19 cases per million residents than Quezon City.
San Juan leads the list with 244 COVID-19 cases compared to its relatively small population of around 122,000. It is followed by Mandaluyong, Makati, Parañaque and Pasay.
Citing doctor John Wong, an epidemiologist with the IATF's sub-technical working group on data analytics, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque likewise said that GCQ is possible in some Metro Manila areas deemed to have a low to moderate risk.
“[H]indi lang po ako sigurado kung ito ay magiging para sa buong Metro Manila dahil sa iba’t-ibang mga siyudad po ay patuloy pa rin po iyong pagdoble ng sakit every two to three days. Alam ko po sa aking siyudad na Quezon City ay mabilis pa rin po ang pagkalat ng sakit,” Roque said in a Thursday Palace briefing.
(I’m not exactly sure if the GCQ shift will apply to the whole Metro Manila since some cities are still seeing doubling times of the disease every two to three day. I know that the transmission rate in Quezon City is fast.)
--
Disclosure: Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte is a shareholder of Philstar Global Corp., which operates digital news outlet Philstar.com. This article was produced following editorial guidelines.
- Latest
- Trending
