Palace: Health workers, OFWs, those with emergencies can go in and out of granular lockdowns

 Niño Jesus Orbeta/Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — Authorized persons outside of residences (APORs) in areas that will be placed under granular lockdown during the pilot implementation in Metro Manila will be limited to health workers, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and persons who need to attend emergencies, Malacañang said Friday.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases already “provisionally” approved the shift to a new strategy where only enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and general community quarantine (GCQ) with alert levels system will be imposed in Metro Manila.

READ: Gov’t trims down NCR quarantine classifications to ECQ, GCQ

“Ngayon, ang pupuwede na lang pong maglabas-pasok ay iyong mga medical and allied health professionals; pangalawa po, iyong mga bumabalik na mga OFWs o iyong mga aalis na OFWs, at siyempre po iyong mayroong mga emergency,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press briefing.

(Those who may go in and out are medical and allied health professionals, returning and outbound OFWs, and of course those who need to attend to emergencies.)

“Pati po mga taong gobyerno o ‘yong mga nagtatrabaho ‘pag kayo po ay nasa ilalim ng localized lockdown, hindi kayo pupuwede lumabas,” Roque said.

(Even government workers and those working under localized lockdown, you will not be allowed to go out.)

Under granular lockdowns, local government units can restrict movement in small areas where high COVID-19 transmissions are detected. It can be as specific as a building, street, barangay, and the like.

The local governments will conduct active case-finding and testing of contacts during the implementation of a granular lockdown.

“Magbibigay po ng ayuda ang mga lokal na pamahalaan at DSWD [Department of Social Welfare and Development] para po di kinakailangan lumabas ng kahit sino sa mga lugar na naka-granular lockdown,” Roque assured.

(The local governments and DSWD will give aid so that those covered by granular lockdowns will no longer have to go out.)

Complementing the GCQ status is an alert level system that will determine which types of businesses can open and at what capacity they will be allowed to operate.

READ: MMDA: ‘Alert level’ status to be used in granular lockdowns