No need to put Visayas, Mindanao under lockdown—Palace

MANILA, Philippines — There’s no need to put Visayas and Mindanao under lockdown for now, as Luzon, the country’s political and economic center, struggles with the new coronavirus outbreak, Malacañang said Tuesday.

According to presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo, some local chief executives in the Visayas and Mindanao have already placed their respective jurisdictions under quarantine which prevented the entry and eventual spread of the infectious respiratory illness.

“Sa ngayon po makikita natin kahit na ‘yung Visayas hindi masyado naapektuhan sapagkat ‘yung mga gobernador doon,  mga mayors nagkaroon sila ng mga sariling lockdown that early nung wala pang infected nagla-lockdown na sila kaya walang nakakapasok na meron,” Panelo said in a virtual press briefing.

“Sa madaling sabi ‘yung Visayas at sa Mindanao depende po sa sitwasyon. (Pero) sa ngayon sa tingin natin ay hindi kailangan,” he added.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, spokesman of the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, added that expanding the Luzon lockdown to the Visayas and Mindanao is off the table for now.

But he noted that the task force will be monitoring the trends in the region “day by day, week by week.”

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier placed the entire island of Luzon, home to about half of the country’s population, under a month-long lockdown to curb the spread of the virus that originated in Hubei, China. He has ordered that the lockdown be extended until April 30.

This strict measure also effectively suspended work for the majority of the region’s residents as it likewise halted the operations of mass public transport.

Provincial and town executives from other parts of the country have also rolled out similar measures in their respective jurisdictions such as Cebu City, Davao City, and the provinces of Albay, Bulacan, Pangasinan, Misamis Oriental, Tarlac, Laguna among others.

To date, the Philippines has reported 3,660 confirmed cases of the respiratory disease, a vast majority of which were reported in Luzon. Meanwhile, 163 patients have died while 73 have recovered nationwide.