Can we get a haircut now?

MANILA, Philippines — Can people go out to get a haircut after April 30?

People have been asking that question since Friday, when President Rodrigo Duterte extended for another two weeks the lockdown in Metro Manila and other high-risk parts of the Philippines to ensure that there will be no resurgence of the new coronavirus when the country exits from quarantine.

Malacañang had no answer on Monday, saying only that the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, the temporary government body overseeing the administration’s response to the coronavirus, was still drawing up guidelines for people’s movements in low-risk areas where quarantine restrictions would be eased from May 1.

Personal services

Duterte placed the entire island of Luzon on a monthlong lockdown from March 16 to halt the spread of the new coronavirus in the Philippines. Under the lockdown, schools and all but the most essential businesses were closed, mass gatherings and public transport were banned.

People were ordered to stay home and only one from each family was allowed to go out on a quarantine pass every day to buy necessities.

Nobody thought about barbershops and hair salons as essential. Or perhaps the task force thought people wouldn’t look shaggy if they didn’t get a haircut for a month.

The lockdown was supposed to end on April 13, but Duterte extended it to April 30 on the task force’s recommendation—and people had to wait for another two weeks to get a haircut.

But then the President, again acting on the task force’s recommendation on Friday, stretched the quarantine to May 15. Nobody complained because food was available and aid continued to be handed out to the poor.

But how about haircut? Do people have to wait three more weeks to get a haircut?

“That is also being discussed,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on Monday. “The problem with these shops is that it’s impossible to do social distancing—unless we develop very long scissors so the stylist won’t be too close to the customer.”

‘Master plan’

Roque said under discussion by the task force were rules for the population’s movements under lockdown in high-risk areas and eased restrictions in low-risk places.

“This will be our master plan, our strategy. The economy will not be opened up completely,” he said.

The task force was expected to complete the rules on Monday and these were expected to be announced on Tuesday.

Roque said application of the rules would ensure the country’s gradual return to normality.

—JULIE M. AURELIO