May 15th was the day when people acted like they just came out of prison – everyone proceeded to go their own ways. Some went to work, others went for leisure on their own ways; everyone had their far share of fun after the 15th and it was reported to be a mess.
The government’s National Task force against the infamous Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) will impose lockdowns per barangay by June. This will serve as an alternative of implementing extensive lockdown in the entire country.
So would we really be free on June? Can we go on our own ways? How would our country look starting June 1st?
Limit Lockdowns by Zoning Concepts
In response to the countless questions imposed by the public; it was then clarified by the Chief implementer of the national action plan against COVID-19 himself – Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.
As per him, the Philippine government was planning to regulate the community quarantines only to particular zones with abundant and high cases of the infamous Coronavirus disease. This would somehow ease the situations in major parts of the country; this will bring the chances that all people who have suffered a chance to recover and to regain what they’ve lost during the lockdown.
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The Chief who made the implementation, during a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte, as well as other Cabinet members that communities might be separated into zones dependent on occurrence rate and expanding time of cases.
In his statement, he said that we will have limit lockdowns – a concept where we will only be imposing quarantines in barangays that have a high number of cases.
When asked about the possible outcome of the quarantine measures after the 31st of May, Galvez said that there will be some type of “zoning concept.”
Ibig sabihin, papaliitin lang natin. Gagawin natin is ‘yong barangay na mayroon cases, ‘yon ang ilo-lockdown natin para ma-preserve natin ang economy.”
In Translation: What this means is that we’ll just shrink the quarantine. What we’ll do is we will put barangays that have cases into lockdown so we can positively preserve our economy.
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The Imposition of the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) in some areas
Since Saturday, the 16th of May 2020, a number of regions were permitted and allowed to some extent to operate under the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ); this included Metro Manila – considering that it’s our country’s most profitable center.
This MECQ was considered as a simple dry run of the National Government to somehow try to restart our economy that has been severely affected by the damned COVID-19 pandemic. It was apparently paralyzed because the entire country underwent a two-month lockdown – which was expected, especially when we saw how other countries reacted to it.
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The areas which were subdued in this MECQ were areas like the following:
- Metro Manila
- Laguna
- Bataan
- Bulacan
- Nueva Ecija
- Pampanga; and
- Zambales
These were the areas that shifted from the feared ECQ to a lighter, mode which was the MECQ. This permitted more industries, businesses, and sectors to operate.
Areas After Luzon
To give an update in the situations of the other regions in the country:
In Central Visayas, Cebu City, and in Mandaue City – they still all remain under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). This is because of the fact that they have a staggering high number of cases. On the other hand, other parts of the country were placed under a General Community Quarantine (GCQ) protocol.
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This had stronger eased movement restrictions – allowing people to slowly go back to the regular while keeping in mind the “new normal” such as wearing face masks, social distancing, and the like.
In conclusion, Presidential Peace Adviser Galvez said that the Philippine government “may” impose lockdowns only at the barangay level. This is to somehow minimize the effects and the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy of our country.
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As of writing, the Philippines has a total number of 13,597 positive cases with 3,092 recoveries. As unfortunate as it may be, the total number of fatalities has risen up to 857. What do you think about the idea to limit lockdowns only at the barangay levels, enter June?
Can this help in the straightening of the country’s economic surface? Or would this have minimal effects in our urge to go with the flow while keeping our finances at bay?
Source/s: Manila Bulletin News
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