‘Hard lockdown’ in Manila City’s Sampaloc district ends; 157 violators held

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 157 quarantine violators were detained in Sampaloc as Manila City’s 48-hour “hard lockdown” on the district ended Saturday night.

According to a report of the Sampaloc Police Station, the 157 Sampaloc residents were held in the district’s various covered courts that were designated as detention centers for the lockdown ordinance offenders.

Meanwhile, police also reported that it rescued 34 residents, among them 13 minors and 21 street dwellers.

The hard lockdown in Sampaloc was implemented as the number of coronavirus disease cases continue to surge in the district.

The 48-hour hard lockdown that started at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 23, was “for purposes of disease surveillance, verification or testing and rapid risk assessment in relation to COVID-19,” the local government earlier explained.

During the strict quarantine, more than 300 residents of Sampaloc were tested for the novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2, which causes the highly contagious respiratory illness named coronavirus disease 2019.

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