Isko locks down 3 Manila barangays

MANILA, Philippines — The Manila city government yesterday placed three barangays under 48-hour enhanced community quarantine or ECQ amid the spike in the number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.

Mayor Isko Moreno signed Executive Orders 27-29 that put three barangays under ECQ starting tomorrow until Saturday.

There were 10 cases of COVID-19 infections in Barangay 60, Zone 5, District 1; 22 in Barangay 163, Zone 14, District 2, and two cases in Barangay 844, Zone 92, District 6.

Moreno said these areas were planced on hard lockdown “for the conduct of disease surveillance, verification, rapid testing and risk assessment.”

Medical frontliners and essential workers are exempted from the lockdown.

The implementation of ECQ would give way for city hall to conduct targeted COVID-19 testing in the areas, Moreno said.

As of Tuesday, 1,854 cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Manila.

Of the number, 1,167 are active cases, 577 recoveries and 110 deaths.

Moreno also eased curfew in the city to give businesses more hours to operate.

He signed Ordinance 8647, which imposes curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. instead of the previous 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Violators will be fined P5,000 and penalized with a month in prison, according to the city public information office.

Meanwhile, Manila barangay bureau officer-in-charge Romeo Bagay reminded barangay officials to ban kite flying following reports of kites getting stuck in electric posts that could cause fire.

Malabon lockdown

In Malabon, even frontliners are not exempted from the total lockdown on Sitio 6 in Barangay Catmon, which has 19 cases of COVID-19, Mayor Antolin Oreta III said yesterday.

Oreta clarified that only frontliners who are not engaged in health services would be affected by the lockdown.

Barangay Catmon captain Brian Manapat said the sitio has to be locked down due to the number of persons exposed to COVID-19 patients.

Swab samples were taken from 30 asymptomatic residents for confirmatory tests, according to Oreta.

Around 1,100 families are affected by the lockdown that will last until June 21, city public information chief Bong Padua said.

As of Tuesday, there were 315 COVID-19 cases in Malabon with 118 recoveries and 41 deaths.