Duque says DOH to ‘take a look’ at proposed NCR lockdown amid coronavirus

MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the health department will “take a look” at the proposed lockdown of Metro Manila as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to threaten the country.

Duque made the remark after Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda urged the government to consider a lockdown of Metro Manila to prevent the virus from spreading.

“We’ll take a look at that but we have to be more calibrated with our approach. We have to be more rational in the approach then we’ll see if there is an indication, we’ll see,” Duque told reporters following a House hearing on the proposed supplemental budget for DOH response to COVID-19.

Duque said that at the moment, there have been no reports of community transmission, as such, the need to continuously assess the situation before declaring a lockdown.

“I’m not saying that there is no need but we will continue to re-assess the situation because now localized pa lang tayo eh, wala pa tayong community transmission (we only have localized transmission, we don’t have community transmission yet),” Duque explained.

The health secretary said there are certain qualifications that need to be met before a lockdown is declared.

“Kailangan mo mayroon kang (There should be) sustained human-to-human transmission which means it’s happening simultaneously: the infections, the localized transmissions are beyond—there are already clusterings that you cannot link them together,” Duque said.

Under Salceda’s proposal, work in Metro Manila should be suspended for one week while classes in the nation’s capital region must be postponed for at least a week or until the end of the school year in April.

The lawmaker also proposed the closure of the North Luzon Expressway and the South Luzon Expressway, the North and South’s major freeways to and from Metro Manila.

Bus trips and domestic flights, as well as railway operations, should also be suspended, according to Salceda.

However, the Albay congressman said food, medicine, and health professionals should be excluded from the temporary Metro Manila lockdown.

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night rejected the proposed lockdown, saying that the country has not “reached that kind of contamination.”

“There will be a time I suppose. I hope not. I hope God will have mercy on our Filipino people. [But] it’s too early,” Duterte said.

Edited by MUF