Parts of Quezon City on 14-day lockdown

MANILA, Philippines — Starting this week, some areas in Quezon City will be placed under a 14-day “special concern lockdown” due to the high number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.

Under the special concern lockdown, only authorized persons outside of residence such as frontliners with necessary identification cards will be allowed to leave their homes.

The city government will provide relief goods and supplies to all families within the designated areas.

An initial five areas have been identified, although the list has yet to be released as of yesterday afternoon.

Rolly Cruz, head of the city epidemiology and surveillance unit, said the decision to place areas under a special concern lockdown is based on the results of community-based testing conducted by the city government. 

“If clustering is observed in these areas, meaning two or more households in each area have positive cases, it is very likely they will end up under the special concern lockdown,” he said.

Urban poor areas and highly dense locations in barangays may also be put on lockdown if there is presence of clustering, according to the city government.

Extensive testing would be conducted in these areas to ensure that the residents are COVID-free after the 14-day period.

City health officials, police officers and soldiers will be deployed in these areas to ensure that quarantine protocols are strictly followed.

They will also be tasked to conduct information dissemination on how to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mayor Joy Belmonte appealed to all residents in areas under special concern lockdown to fully cooperate.

As of Monday night, the Department of Health has recorded 1,589 confirmed cases in Quezon City, with 138 recoveries and 361 deaths.

Meanwhile, 4,175 swabs have so far been collected from residents in the community-based testing of the city government. A total of 1,080 have been tested, with 925 negative and 155 positive.

Caloocan village on EECQ

Caloocan Mayor Oscar Malapitan placed Barangay 156 in Bagong Barrio on lockdown last night due to the number of COVID-19 cases in the barangay.

Malapitan said he placed the barangay on extreme enhanced community quarantine (EECQ) from 8 p.m. until 11:59 p.m. on Friday.

Under the EECQ, residents will no longer be allowed to leave their houses even with quarantine passes, and non-essential businesses will be ordered closed.

The lockdown will also enable city government to conduct contact tracing and swabbing of samples from residents.

Barangay captain Maritess Go promised to provide relief goods to affected residents.

According to the city government’s public information office, Barangay 156 has the highest number of COVID-19 positive cases at 25.

As of yesterday, there were 269 cases of COVID-19 in Caloocan. Of the 269, 203 are active cases, 24 are deaths, and 42 are recoveries.

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