THE re-imposition of the hard lockdown in Metro Manila and adjoining provinces may actually go beyond the one-week timetable set forth by Malacañang, says National Task Force against COVID-19 spokesperson Restituto Padilla.
Interviewed over the radio, Padilla said that the government is duty-bound to extend the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila and provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal if COVID-19 cases continue to rise despite the one-week lockdown.
Padilla also called for cooperation even as he urged the public to strictly comply with the regulations imposed by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), which came out with stiffer clauses on curfew hours, house visitation by virus tracking personnel, travel restrictions, scaled down business operations and border checkpoints.
“We are now monitoring the situation. That is why we need the cooperation of everybody to help our frontliners and see a decline in the COVID cases so that the ECQ will just be temporary,” Padilla said.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday approved the IATF Resolution 106-A placing the National Capital Region (NCR) – Plus under ECQ from 29 March to 4 April 2021.
“If the alarming COVID cases will continue because we are not heeding the call of the government, we may extend this (ECQ) as what is important is to prevent our health system to be overwhelmed by the patients being tested with the virus,” Padilla added.
The Department of Health (DOH) has been recording record high figures representing both the daily tallies and total number of active cases.