Lawmaker calls for month-long Luzon quarantine extension

MANILA, Philippines — Caloocan City 2nd District Rep. Edgar Erice on Wednesday asked the national government to extend the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) imposed in the Luzon region for another 30 days.

Erice said that the gains from the current imposition of the quarantine in a bid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) “will all just be wasted” if an extension will not be in place.

“Science, the experience of other countries and common sense would dictate that the Philippine government should extend the enhanced community quarantine for another 30 days as we continue to grapple with hard facts on the real statistics of COVID-19 spread in our communities,” Erice said in a statement.

“I have been to more than a hundred villages in my city the past two weeks and I am afraid that if COVID-19 reach [these] areas all hell will break loose,” the lawmaker added.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier placed the entire Luzon under enhanced community quarantine until midnight of April 13, 2020 as a part of the government’s effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Under the enhanced community quarantine, “strict home quarantine shall be implemented in all households; transportation shall be suspended; provision for food and essential services shall be regulated; and heightened presence of uniformed personnel to enforce quarantine procedures will be implemented.”

Meanwhile, Erice also said that the government should utilize its resources to ensure that food supply will be provided to the poor and the lower middle class households amid the quarantine.

“These are the least we can do to protect our citizenry as we are at war against a very  invisible, powerful enemy,” Erice said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Health (DOH) said there are 2,084 COVID-19 cases in the country, with the death toll soaring to 88.

A total of 49 patients, meanwhile, were able to recover from the disease.

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus that first emerged in China’s city of Wuhan in Hubei province in late 2019.

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses named the novel coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2.

The virus causes mild symptoms such as fever and cough for most people but can cause serious illness such as pneumonia for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems.

Coronavirus is a family of viruses, which surfaces have a crown-like appearance.

GSG