The Metro Manila area (pictured) – encompassing the Entertainment City zone that is home to the Philippine capital’s large-scale casino resorts – will after all return to a stricter anti-Covid-19 lockdown, it was reported on Monday, referring to a Sunday order from President Rodrigo Duterte.
The so-called “modified enhanced community quarantine” will apply from Tuesday (August 4) and run until August 18, according to media reports citing presidential spokesman Harry Roque.
Under it, stay-at-home orders will take effect, and public transport will be halted.
Most shops in malls, and restaurants with takeaway and delivery options, will need to operate at half their normal workforce capacity if they wish to stay open. Barber shops, salons and gyms will have to shut, according to the reports.
Casino complexes in the Metro Manila area, including the private-sector venues City of Dreams Manila, Okada Manila, Resorts World Manila and Solaire Resort and Casino, have been closed since mid-March due to the pandemic.
On Friday, President Duterte had indicated that an existing “general community quarantine” (GCQ) in Metro Manila would be maintained until at least August 15, with any stricter measures confined to those neighbourhoods of the metropolis with a high level of community transmission.
As of Sunday, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the Philippines had surpassed the 100,000-mark. That day the country’s Department of Health reported a record-high daily tally of 5,032 new cases – with 2,737 of them in Metro Manila. It took the national aggregate of cases to 103,185, with 2,059 fatalities.
During the pandemic crisis, Metro Manila had at one stage been under an enhanced community quarantine. That was then eased to modified enhanced community quarantine, and then further relaxed to general community quarantine, prior to Sunday’s announcement of a return to modified enhanced community quarantine.
