32,000 houses in Quezon City under lockdown, says Belmonte

 (FILE) A section of Ina ng Lupang Pangako Parish church in Barangay Payatas, Quezon City, serves as a COVID-19 antigen testing center on Wednesday through the “Swab Cab” initiative of the Office of the Vice President. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — Around 32,000 houses in Quezon City are now in lockdown amid the surge in COVID-19 infections, Mayor Joy Belmonte said Thursday.

Currently, Quezon City has 34,000 active cases. Despite this, the city government does not implement granular lockdowns, but house-to-house lockdowns.

“Hindi na po tayo nagpapatupad ng granular lockdown,” Belmonte said on Teleradyo’s Kabayan.

(We are not implementing granular lockdowns anymore.)

“Siguro imposible na po mag-lockdown pa ng communities. Ang mangyayari po kasi diyan, buong lungsod magla-lockdown kung ganu’n ang mangayyari. So, ang ginagawa po natin, house-to-house lockdown,” she shared.

(It seems impossible to lock down communities. What will happen is the whole city would be under lockdown if that’s the case. So, what we’re doing is house-to-house lockdowns.)

Under the house-to-house lockdown policy, the entire household with a COVID-positive member is prohibited to leave their residence.

“So, at the moment, we have locked down 32,000 houses already here in Quezon City,” said the mayor.

“Ibig sabihin nu’n, ‘yung mga member ng household, hindi talaga natin pinapahintulutan lumabas ng tahanan,” she added.

(It means, the members of the household are restricted from going out of their homes.)

Belmonte justified that the imposition of house-to-house lockdown is science-based.

“This is also science-based na ayon sa mga datos ng ating mga eksperto (according to our experts), once [someone] is positive, sa bilis ng Omicron makahawa (because Omicron spreads quickly), the chances are the whole household will be positive,” she explained.

The Department of Health on Wednesday logged 32,246 new COVID-19 cases, raising the active infections to 208,164.

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