Iloilo City under MECQ until May 31; Apayao, Cagayan, Benguet MECQ also extended — IATF

MANILA, Philippines — Iloilo City has been put under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) while the same quarantine status in Apayao, Cagayan, and Benguet has also been extended until May 31, said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).

Upon the appeal of Iloilo City’s local government for stricter measures to curb the surge of COVID-19 cases, the IATF has placed Ilolilo under a week-long MECQ beginning May 23 to 31.

This came after Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas asked the IATF to change the city’s status from modified general community quarantine to MECQ for at least 15 days “to prevent the collapse of our health-care system and to arrest the continuous rise in COVID-19 infections.”

Meanwhile, upon the recommendation of the IATF Screening and Validation Committee, the MECQ in Apayao, Cagayan and Benguet has also been extended until May 31.

The three provinces were first placed under MECQ on May 10 and were set to last until May 23.

The so-called NCR plus (Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite, and Laguna ), on the other hand, is currently under general community quarantine “with heightened restrictions” from May 15 until May 31.