Checkpoint signage is seen as a soldier (R) checks the temperature of a motorist before entering Manila on March 16, 2020, as part of measures to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. – The virus has upended society around the planet, with governments imposing restrictions rarely seen outside war-time, including the closing of borders, home quarantine orders, and the scrapping of public events. (Photo by Maria TAN / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — Today, March 12, 2021, marks the first anniversary since the Philippines imposed a community quarantine in hopes of controlling the country’s COVID-19 cases.
It has also been months since President Rodrigo Duterte first vowed that life will be “back to normal” by December.
However, the country has yet to see a consistent improvement even though the national government and citizens have been putting up with stringent health and community protocols.
Amid the government’s ongoing program to inoculate those included in the priority list, the country is still struggling due to the detection of new COVID-19 variants and the sudden surge in infections.
Look back: Quarantine timeline in PH
Starting from March last year, the Palace has been conducting monthly meetings with the IATF and other Cabinet members to decide the country’s quarantine status.
According to the amended Omnibus Guidelines issued by the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases the following quarantine statuses which can be imposed in the country are:
Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ): This refers to the implementation of temporary measures imposing stringent limitations on movement and transportation of people, strict regulation of operating industries, provision of food and essential services, and heightened presence of uniformed personnel to enforce community quarantine protocols.
Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ): Refers to the transition phase between ECQ and GCQ, when the following temporary measures are relaxed and become less necessary: stringent limits on movement and transportation of people, strict regulation of operating industries, provision of food and essential services, and heightened presence of uniformed personnel to enforce community quarantine protocols.
General Community Quarantine (GCQ): The implementation of temporary measures limiting movement and transportation, regulation of operating industries, and presence of uniformed personnel to enforce community quarantine protocols.
Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ): The transition phase between GCQ and the New Normal, when the following temporary measures are relaxed and become less necessary: limiting movement and transportation, the regulation of operating industries, and the presence of uniformed personnel to enforce community quarantine protocols.
Below are the month-by-month changes in quarantine status in Metro Manila and other parts of the country:
After declaring a state of public health emergency on March 9, President Rodrigo Duterte on March 12 has placed the entire Metro Manila under a community quarantine for the first time.
From March 16 to April 30, 2020, the entire island of Luzon was placed under a stricter ECQ.
Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and other “high-risk” areas in Luzon were placed under ECQ from May 1 to May 15. Meanwhile, the GCQ was imposed in several provinces as the health department monitored additional cases of infections.
For the entire month of June, Metro Manila and several areas in Luzon, Central Visayas, and Mindanao were under GCQ. Cebu City, on the other hand, was under ECQ while MECQ was imposed on the rest of the country.
In July, Metro Manila and several areas in Luzon and Visayas remained under GCQ. ECQ was in effect on Cebu City until the first half of the month, while the rest of the country was under low-risk MGCQ.
From August 4 to 18, Metro Manila was brought back to MECQ, along with Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, and Bulacan due to an increase in COVID-19 cases.
However, on August 19, Metro Manila was again declared to be under GCQ, along with some areas in Luzon and Visayas.
In September, Metro Manila, Bulacan, Batangas, Tacloban, Bacolod were placed under GCQ. Iligan City, on the other hand, was under MECQ. MGCQ was imposed in the rest of the country.
Iligan City and Iloilo City in October joined Metro Manila, Batangas, Tacloban City, and Bacolod City in the list of areas under GCQ. MECQ was meanwhile imposed for Lanao del Sur, including Marawi City. The rest of the country was moved to the most lenient community quarantine.
Duterte extended GCQ status over Metro Manila, Batangas, and Lanao del Sur, and the cities of Iloilo, Bacolod, Tacloban, and Iligan for the whole month of November.
Metro Manila, Batangas, Iloilo City, Tacloban City, Lanao del Sur, Iligan, and Davao City celebrated the holiday season while under GCQ. The rest of the country was placed under MGCQ as the year ended.
In January this year, GCQ was reimposed for Metro Manila and four provinces including Davao del Norte, Batangas, Isabela, and Lanao del Sur as well as five cities — Santiago, Iloilo, Tacloban, Iligan, and Davao. The rest of the country welcomed the new year under MGCQ.
February 1 to 28, 2021: As the country prepare for the vaccination drive against COVID-19, the national government imposed GCQ over Metro Manila, Cordillera Administrative Region (Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Baguio City, Ifugao, Kalinga, and Mountain Province), Batangas province, Tacloban City, Davao City, Davao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Iligan City. Other areas not mentioned were under the more lenient MGCQ.
Despite the monthly revision of the community quarantine assignments in the country, the number of Covid-19 cases continues to increase.
How are we doing after a year of lockdown?
In terms of the total Covid-19 caseload, according to data from the Department of Health (DOH), as of March 11, there were 3,749 new cases of COVID-19. This brings the total number of active coronavirus cases in the country to 47,769.
This is the highest number of additional COVID-19 cases that is over the 3,000-mark so far this year. The DOH again started reporting over 3,000 new COVID-19 cases per day last March 5.
Of the sum, 7.9 percent, or 47,769 are the active cases. Meanwhile, the total number of recoveries topped the number of fatalities with 90.1 percent or 546,671 and 2.1 percent or 12,608 respectively.
Based on the recent mortality analysis by the John Hopkins University, the Philippines ranked 30th out of 173 countries when it comes to the highest number of COVID-19 cases.
Meanwhile, the country placed 32nd in terms of confirmed deaths caused by the disease.
The National Capital Region (NCR) still holds the highest number of Covid-19 cases nationwide with a total of 249,927. It is followed by Region IV-A Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) with 101,632 cases. Meanwhile, Region VII or Central Visayas recorded 44,565 cases.
Data from DOH also showed that Quezon City has the highest number of Covid-19 cases with 46,842. The City of Manila came second on the list with a total of 32,006. On the other hand, Cavite recorded 29,492 cases; Laguna had 25,867, and 23,706 in Rizal.
A year after COVID-19 emerged from Wuhan, China, and affected many countries globally, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, mutated into three variants — the United Kingdom (UK) variant, South Africa variant, and the Brazil variant.
Two of those variants, according to the health department, have already been detected in the Philippines.
As of last week, the country’s total cases of the B.1.351 COVID-19 variant from South Africa shot up to 58.
The DOH also recorded a total of 118 UK variant cases.
Aside from that, there were also 42 cases of the N501Y and E484K mutations, which are also called “mutations of potential clinical significance.”
Thirty-four of the new cases have indicative addresses in Region 7, while six cases have indicative addresses in the NCR. The remaining two cases are still being verified either as local cases or ROFs.
“Twenty-two of the 34 cases from Region 7 is now recovered. Meanwhile, the remaining 12 Region 7 cases, all six NCR cases, and both cases being verified are tagged as active cases,” the DOH said.
The University of the Philippines (UP) – Philippine Genome Center (PGC) meanwhile clarified that the Brazil COVID-19 variant of concern — known as the P.1 variant — has not yet been detected in the country.
Projection
The OCTA Research on Sunday said that the country’s COVID-19 infections might shoot up from 5,000 to 6,000 per day by the end of March.
“Based on the current reproduction number, NCR is projected to have 2,000 new COVID-19 cases per day by March 21 and 3,000 new cases per day by March 31, while the country is projected to have 5,000 to 6,000 new cases per day by the end of March,” said OCTA research in its monitoring report.
The health department attributed the recent rise of COVID-19 cases to the public’s failure to follow the minimum public health standard, aside from the presence of the new variants.
Duterte, on the other hand, stated that the rapid population growth made it “impossible” for some Filipinos to observe social distancing to prevent the spread of the dreaded disease.
“There are so many Filipinos that are crammed in the urban areas. So at the very least mask, face shield, for the maximum protection,” he said in a speech during the inauguration of projects at the Dumaguete-Sibulan Airport in Negros Oriental.
“But other, especially social distancing, I do not think that we can force our people really to [observe it] because it’s impossible. There are too many Filipinos in the urban areas than in the rural areas,” the President added.
Last month, Duterte said that as the government push for its immunization program, Filipinos may have to wait until the first or second quarter of 2023 before the country can return to normalcy or a pre-pandemic condition.
Vaccination progress
The country has so far vaccinated 114,615 individuals against COVID-19 since it started its immunization campaign, said presidential spokesman Harry Roque on Thursday.
The Philippine government has so far deployed 796,950 vaccine doses: 440,450 CoronaVac developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech and 356,500 AstraZeneca jabs.
Roque added that so far, there are 442 vaccination sites in the country, around 348 of these carried out the inoculations on March 10 in 17 regions covering 176 local government units.
Meanwhile, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier detailed that over 44,000 vaccine doses against COVID-19 have already been administered.
The country kicked off its COVID-19 inoculation program last Monday, after the arrival of 600,000 doses of CoronaVac, the vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac BioTech.
The first to get vaccinated was the director of the Philippine General Hospital, Dr. Gerardo “Gap” Legaspi.
Aside from the donated vaccines from China’s Sinovac, the Philippines has recently received 487,200 vaccine doses made by British-Swede drugmaker AstraZeneca.
The vaccines were from the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility
According to National Task Force against COVID-19 deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon, the government aims to vaccinate250,000 to 300,000 individuals per day once the bulk of vaccines arrive in the country.
“We have a goal of inoculating about 50 million Filipinos this year and to achieve that target, we need to be, for the remainder of the year, especially when the bulk of the vaccines comes in, is roughly about anywhere between 250,000 and 300,000 plus per day to reach that goal,” he said in an interview on Wednesday over ABS CBN News Channel.
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