NO ENTRY, NO EXIT Granular lockdowns will be pilot tested in Metro Manila to stop the spread of the more contagious Delta variant. —NINO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines — One COVID-19 case will not mean an “automatic” lockdown of an entire condominium floor, an official of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has clarified.
DILG spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya made the clarification on Friday following an earlier remark by Metro Manila Council chairman and Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez that a single COVID-19 could trigger a lockdown of an entire condominium floor.
“It may cause the entire floor to be locked down but it may not, depending on the situation of the COVID-positive patient,” Malaya said in an ANC interview.
“Mayor Olivarez is correct, one case may trigger, but it is not automatic, because once a positive case is detected, immediately, as part of the standard operating procedures, contact tracing has to happen,” Malaya explained.
“So if it is determined that an individual went around the floor and talked to people, then that would require shutting down, or locking down the entire floor,” he further explained.
“But, if it was proven that an individual just went to the grocery or was infected on the way to and from the market and just went straight to his unit, that would not require shutting down the entire floor,” he went on.
Malaya emphasized the purpose of the zoning containment strategy — the technical term for granular lockdown — is to narrow down the intervention to the smallest possible unit.
The granular lockdown was adopted under the new Alert Level guidelines in Metro Manila.
Metro Manila is under general community quarantine or GCQ Alert Level 4 until September 30.
“That is why it is very hard for us to make definitive rules from the national government because the implementation is really depending on the conditions on the ground,” Malaya said.