A general community quarantine in the Metro Manila area of the Philippine capital (pictured) has been extended to July 15 as a countermeasure against Covid-19, said on Tuesday the country’s President Rodrigo Duterte.
The measure was due to have expired at the end of the day on Tuesday (June 30).
Operations of casino resorts in Manila are to remain suspended during the extended period, a source confirmed to GGRAsia. Casino complexes in the Metro Manila area, including the large-scale private sector sites of City of Dreams Manila, Okada Manila, Resorts World Manila and Solaire Resort and Casino, remain closed since mid-March.
The decision announced on Tuesday comes after President Duterte approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases to place Metro Manila under general quarantine measures for two more weeks starting Wednesday (July 1), as the number of Covid-19 infections in the country continues to rise.
Only Cebu City is to remain under so-called enhanced quarantine (the highest level of quarantine), according to the announcement. Most of the country has been placed under what is termed a modified general quarantine, the most relaxed phase of such measures.
Information carried on the website of the Philippine Department of Health indicated that the aggregate number of Covid-19 cases in the nation topped 37,500 as of Tuesday. A total of 1,080 new cases had been reported as of that day.
The website further stated that 26,015 cases remained active, and a total of 1,266 people had died.
Licensed casinos in four places in the Philippines that are well away from Metro Manila have been allowed to reopen – with limited capacity – after sufficient easing locally of the lockdown rules designed to stem the national spread of Covid-19.
The Metro Manila casino resorts were said to be doing “dry runs in their respective properties” ahead of the reopenings, a spokesperson for the country’s regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, said in a recent statement to GGRAsia.
Gross gaming revenue produced by the Philippine casino sector in the first quarter was down 13.6 percent year-on-year, to PHP45.40 billion (US$910.8 million), according to official data.
