Refreshed Perspective: Your guide to surviving MECQ again

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:

• Wearing face masks/face shields when going out.
• Frequent sanitation and handwashing.
• Avoid touching surfaces and your face.
• Stricter protocols for higher-risk occupations, industries, and spaces.
• Maintaining a one-meter distance between people.
• Reconfigured work spaces and markers in public spaces.
• Work suspension upon showing of symptoms.
• Work-from-home setup to be imposed as default.
• Private shuttles are required for workers of allowed industries.
• Antibody testing and confirmatory PCR.

External Movements

Due to the high number of daily confirmation of COVID-19, the following external movements are to be limited.

• Population must stay 100% at home, especially those who are below 21 years old, 60 years old and above, have immunodeficiency, comorbidities, or other health risks, and pregnant women.
• Only limited outdoor exercises are allowed (i.e. outdoor walking, jogging/running, and biking) with safety protocols.
• Gatherings are highly restricted to a maximum of five individuals only.
• Suspension of public transportation.
• Closure of school premises.
• For government offices, only onsite skeletal workforce is allowed while others will be working from home.

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:

• Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
• Manufacturing of essential goods
  • Food and beverages (only non-alcoholic drinks)
  • Hygiene (i.e. soap, detergent, disinfectant)
  • Medicines and vitamins
  • Medical products (i.e. masks)
  • Pet food, feeds, and fertilizers
• Hospitals and clinics (non-aesthetic — i.e. dermatological, dental, optometric, and eye, ear, nose, throat)
• Essential retail (i.e. groceries. markets, drug stores)
• Laundry shops (including self-service)
• Food preparation and water-refilling: take-out and delivery only
• Logistics service providers (i.e. cargo handling, warehousing, trucking, shipping line)
• Delivery services
• Utilities: power, energy, water, telecom, aircon, water collection/supply, waste management, sewerage (except septic tank emptying, but including pest control, garbage collection, etc.)
• Repair and installation of machinery and equipment
• Telecommunications companies (i.e. ISPs, cable providers, teclo third party contractors)
• Energy companies (including third party contractors) across transmission, distribution, maintenance, retail, exploration, operations, trading and delivery of raw materials (including refineries and depots)
• Gasoline stations
• Construction workers accredited by the DPWH to work on facilities for healthcare and for risk reduction
• Manufacturing companies and suppliers of products necessary for construction
• Media establishments

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!