MANILA, Philippines —Navotas City will be on lockdown from 5 a.m. on July 16 up to 11:59 p.m. on July 29 to help keep its rising number of COVID-19 cases in check, Mayor Toby Tiangco announced on Monday in his official Facebook page.
According to Tiangco, the health and quarantine facilities of the city have reached their full capacity as the number of COVID-19 cases have shot up since quarantine restrictions were eased up in the whole of Metro Manila.
As of Monday, he said, the city had confirmed 981 COVID-19 cases.
Earlier in the day, a draft of an executive order setting the lockdown had been circulating on social media. Tiangco confirmed only that there was a plan to impose a lockdown.
But by evening, he had already signed the order.
“Because of the continuous increase of patients, our community isolation facilities have filled up. So we had to send patients to We Heal as One Centers. Several hospitals elsewhere in Metro Manila have also reached their full capacity,” Tiangco said in Filipino.
Earlier, at least four hospitals — St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City and in Taguig, the Makati Medical Center, and the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City — announced that they could no longer accept new COVID-19 patients due to full bed capacity.
Tiangco also noted the following points in his order:
- Individuals considered vulnerable under guidelines set by the Department of Health are not allowed to leave their houses.
- Only Navotas residents and those from outside whose jobs are in the city will be allowed to enter.
- Vehicles that have no business inside the city and are merely passing through would be asked to use only five roads — C-4, North Bay Boulevard, C-3, Lapu-Lapu Avenue, and R-10.
- Health workers, government employees, and those working other essential facilities are exempted from the lockdown restrictions.
/atm