President Rodrigo Roa Duterte recently announced that Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal are to be put under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) from August 4 to 18, 2020. This followed calls from the medical community to put Mega Manila under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) to serve as a “timeout” for health professionals and to better strategize on the pandemic response, given that confirmed cases have already breached the 100,000 mark.
Here’s a quick rundown of how MECQ works and how it will impact your movement for the next 14 days.
Minimum Health Standards
Everyone is encouraged to adhere to the following guidelines as prescribed by the Department of Health (DOH) to lessen contact and chances of contracting the disease:
External Movements
Due to the high number of daily confirmation of COVID-19, the following external movements are to be limited.
Transportation
Under MECQ, public mass transport will again be suspended to avoid any further contact between individuals. Only public shuttles and tricycles are allowed with exceptions subject to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and respective local government units.
While private transport is allowed during this type of quarantine, the number of people being transported must be taken into account. Those allowed include company shuttles, personal vehicles for workers in essential industries with a maximum of two persons per row, and bicycles, motorcycles, and e-scooters with a maximum of one person per unit.
Essential Industries and Establishments
Coming from the previous MECQ guidelines released by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), the following industries classified under Category I will be allowed to operate during this period:
To access the IATF’s full MECQ guidelines and list of industries allowed to operate, you may refer to this link.
According to a study conducted by YouGov in partnership with the Institute of Global Health Innovation at the Imperial College London, 91% of surveyed Filipinos wear face masks when going out and 83% wash their hands with soap and water. Given the findings of this study, it is safe to assume that Filipinos are very much compliant when it comes to the minimum health standards.
After five months of being in various quarantine stages, safety is still the name of the game. Take the necessary precautions to protect yourself and everyone around you because this is one fight we don’t want to lose. Let’s do this, Pilipinas!
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