DAVAO CITY — Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Monday identified specific rules for residents living in areas where the GCQ is in place. These are:
1. Selected workers in nonessential services are allowed to go to work. Companies in electronics, exports, manufacturing, e-commerce, delivery, repair services, maintenance, and housing can resume full operations as long as they observe minimum health standards such as physical distancing.
* Those in finance, business process outsourcing (BPO), and non-leisure trade and services can have half of its employees work from home while the remaining 50 percent are working on site. Schools, amusement centers, leisure facilities, gaming, and tourism services must remain closed;
2. Children (0 to 20 years old), elderly (60 years old and above), and people with high-risk health issues are not allowed to go out of their homes;
3. Non-leisure shops in malls are allowed to reopen. Malls should limit the entry of shoppers and implement mandatory temperature checks and mandatory use of masks and alcohol. They are also advised to turn up the airconditioning temperature and stop offering free WiFi to discourage people to “linger” inside the malls;
4. Priority construction projects can resume;
5. Nonworkers, except children, elderly, vulnerable people, are allowed to buy food and go out to avail of essential services;
6. Public transport can operate at reduced capacity to ensure social distancing;
7. Local government units shall enforce a curfew for non-workers;
8. Airports and ports can only operate for the unhampered delivery of goods;
Hence, all these come with restriction to limit the movement of people.
Roque said malls that will reopen next month are required to keep the centralized temperature at 26 degrees Celsius and to shut off the free wifi service. Minimum health standards like the wearing of masks, taking of body temperatures, and handwashing protocols will also continue to be enforced.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said those who will head out of their homes in areas under GCQ must always bring an ID to prove that their are age between 21-59. He added that checkpoints will remain along with city or provincial borders.
If infections sustain a decline, these areas may see the GCQ restrictions lifted by May 16, new Socioeconomic Planning chief Karl Kendrick Chua said in a separate briefing.
Health experts, including the World Health Organization, have warned that hastily lifting quarantine restrictions — which include the suspension of mass transportation and the imposition of stay-at-home orders — may lead to the second wave of infections, just like in Singapore, which initially arrested the spread of COVID-19, but later faced a resurgence of the viral disease.
As of May 12, 5:00 in the afternoon, the Department of Health has recorded 11,350cases of COVID-19, including 107 new recoveries 2,106 with 25 new deaths bringing the total casualty to 751.-NewsLine
