Manila Locks Down as COVID-19 Cases Surge in the Philippines
Manila Locks Down as COVID-19 Cases Surge in the Philippines
Millions of Filipinos will spend their second straight Easter Sunday under lockdown in an effort to stop a record surge of COVID-19 infections.
https://thediplomat.com/2021/03/manila-locks-down-as-covid-19-cases-surge-in-the-philippines/
By Nick Aspinwall March 29, 2021
Empty streets around the Ortigas Center in the Philippine capital Manila during the community quarantine, March 18, 2020.
Credit: Flickr/Asian Development Bank
The Philippine government said Saturday it will put Manila and several neighboring provinces under a strict lockdown for one week due to a rise in COVID-19 cases.
The new restrictions come more than a year after the country instituted one of the worlds strictest and longest lockdowns in its capital region.
Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal will be subjected to strict movement restrictions, an indoor dining ban and an 11-hour curfew from Monday, March 29 to Sunday, April 4, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Saturday.
The lockdown will run as the predominantly Catholic country celebrates Holy Week, culminating in Easter Sunday. For the second straight year, religious gatherings will be banned, along with indoor gatherings with people from outside the immediate household.
Roque said there would be a heightened presence of police and military to enforce lockdown restrictions and that the government would go door-to-door to search for people with COVID-19 symptoms, a practice which has raised the ire of human rights groups.
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