DOTr to develop P2P transport for health workers during quarantine
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Transportation (DoTr) will develop a “point-to-point transport services” for all health and emergency frontline workers during the “enhanced community quarantine” of the entire island of Luzon due to the spread of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
According to Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, it was among those agreed during a meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Health and emergency frontline workers include public and private health workers and volunteers of the Philippine Red Cross and the World Health Organization.
“The Department of Transportation in cooperation with local government units and upon consultation with the Department of Health shall develop a system of point-to-point transport services for all the aforementioned health workers,” Nograles said in a press briefing late Tuesday night.
On Monday night, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the imposition of an enhanced community quarantine in the entire Luzon, which halted all public transport and restricted the public to home quarantine to avoid the further spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has infected 187 and killed 14 in the country.
READ: Luzon now under ‘enhanced community quarantine’ – Palace
READ: DOH record 45 new cases of COVID-19; total now at 187
But immediately after the leveled-up quarantine standard, employees in the exempted group were treated to a confusing implementation of the police checkpoints, with public transport not being allowed to ply their usual routes, stranding hundreds of passengers.
Exempted from the work stoppage, however, are all businesses, services, and activities related to the production or provision of food, medicine and health, banking and finance, public utilities and mass media.
Duterte’s order also allows BPO establishments and export-oriented industries to continue operations provided that they will observe “strict social distancing measures.”
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For more information on COVID-19, call the DOH Hotline: (02) 86517800 local 1149/1150.
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