A general community quarantine (GCQ) “with restrictions” will apply until June 15 to Metro Manila and some other areas, as a Covid-19 countermeasure, said President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night.
Metro Manila (pictured) is home to Entertainment City, a zone with four large-scale private-sector casino resorts, with a fifth one being built.
Metro Manila’s casinos are “currently allowed to operate at limited capacity,” said last week the country’s gaming regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, in response to an enquiry from GGRAsia.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Monday press statement that some restrictions would remain in place in the GCQ areas, limiting the capacities of certain industries.
It was not clear from reports, whether the “conditions” included continuation of a night time curfew from 10pm to 4am that had applied under the previous GCQ order, which expired on Monday.
But a number of media outlets cited Edwin Olivarez, mayor of Parañaque, one of the authorities within Metro Manila, as saying on Monday that Metro Manila mayors were in favour of keeping the night curfew, although they also wanted to see more relaxation of economic activities in the metropolis.
A Friday statement from Mr Roque, said that the country’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases had approved so-called staycations at hotels within that country.
The scheme included hotels at Entertainment City properties: the Okada Manila casino resort; Solaire Resort and Casino; Nobu Hotel, Hyatt Regency and Nüwa Manila at City of Dreams Manila; and Sheraton Manila Hotel, Hilton Manila and Hotel Okura Manila at Resorts World Manila.
On Monday the president extended the GCQ also to the “National Capital Region Plus” area beyond Metro Manila, i.e., Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal.
The official Philippine News Agency reported on Monday that President Duterte also approved the extension until June 15 of restrictions currently imposed on inbound travellers from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
That was after two overseas Filipino workers who returned from the Arabian Gulf, tested positive for a so-called “Indian variant” strain of Covid-19.
As of Monday, the country’s Department of Health had recorded 6,684 new Covid-19 infections, bringing the country’s total of active cases to 54,290.
An aggregate of 1,155,045 cases involved people deemed recovered. An additional 139 deaths brought the mortality toll to 20,966.
