Quezon City government says no additional area under lockdown
MANILA, Philippines — Contrary to reports, there are no additional areas in Quezon City that are under lockdown, the city government said.
“The Quezon City Government wishes to clarify a news release dated this day, about the City placing on Lockdown additional areas within its jurisdiction. This news is untrue,” the city government said in a statement on Thursday.
The Quezon City government said that as of Thursday, the city has placed only 11 locations in five barangays under a special concern lockdown (SCL) which is consistent with local and national guidelines.
“These areas have been on SCL since May 13. We are not adding as of now, any additional Special Concern Lockdown Areas,” it added.
According to the city government, what has been erroneously reported as lockdown areas were extreme enhanced community quarantine (EECQ) areas within barangays in the city.
“The concept of the EECQ is derived from national government guidance stating that when two or more households belonging to one barangay have positive patients, this barangay must be placed under lockdown,” it explained.
But considering that Quezon City’s barangays have very large populations making this recommendation hard to implement, the city government has implemented a system where only areas of the barangay with active cases and its immediate vicinities are to be placed under EECQ.
“This simply means these areas are subject to tighter checkpoints to ensure that positive patients and suspects on home quarantine (hot zones) are strictly prohibited from leaving their homes, while the movements of those in the immediate environs (warm zones) are strictly monitored,” the LGU explained.
Currently, there are 34 barangays in the city with areas that are under EECQ.
As of 11 p.m. Wednesday, Quezon City has recorded 1,910 COVID-19 confirmed cases. A total of 165 have died of the disease while 596 have recovered.
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