MANILA, Philippines — More than 100 areas in the country were placed under localized lockdown to suppress the spread of coronavirus disease, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said Friday.
“Localized lockdown is like hitting COVID-19 at its source which has been proven to be effective especially in the 112 areas where it is currently being implemented. It really works since the hot zones areas are secluded from the rest of the community, hence, stopping the transmission to other communities,” Interior chief Eduardo Año, who is also the vice-chairman of the National Task Force against COVID-19, said in a statement.
Of the 112 areas, 67 are in the Cordillera Administrative Region, 18 in the National Capital Region, 19 in Cebu City, five in Cagayan de Oro City, and one each in Cavite, Quezon, and Leyte.
In the same statement, DILG Undersecretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya said LGUs, with the concurrence of their regional Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases, must declare lockdown for streets, puroks, barangays (villages) or the whole city or municipality if there is a cluster of COVID-19 cases in the area.
“The NTF saw the need for an LGU-led containment strategy where LGUs could monitor the pandemic more accurately in their respective areas and allow them to adopt a calibrated response that can adapt to emerging conditions in their areas, enabling them to stay ahead of the outbreak trajectory,” Malaya said.