Only 226 areas under lockdown as COVID-19 cases keep decreasing

Metro Manila only has 28 areas under granular lockdown, says Interior Secretary Eduardo Año. The rest are in the Cordillera Administrative Region and the Ilocos Region. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JILSON SECKLER TIU)

MANILA, Philippines — Only 226 areas were under granular lockdown as of Monday, significantly fewer than in the past two weeks, as COVID-19 cases continued to decrease nationwide, according to Interior Secretary Eduardo Año.

Of the total, only 28 are in Metro Manila. Most of the other areas, a total of 129, are in the Cordillera Administrative Region, and 61 are in. the Ilocos Region.

“It’s good news to see the decrease in our cases. And we can also see the decrease in the number of places that are being put under granular lockdown,” Año said in Filipino during the taped weekly “Talk to the People” briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Currently, only 14 cities and municipalities — or 109 barangays — are under granular lockdown,” he added.

In all, 267 households and 343 individuals are affected by the lockdowns.

This is a huge jump since last Feb. 5, when the Philippine National Police (PNP) said that 489 areas would have to be put under granular lockdown.

That was back when the country was still in the early stages of the COVID-19 case downtrend. Back then, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded 7,689 new infections for a total of 136,436 active cases on that day.

Earlier on Monday, the DOH tallied only  1,427 new infections, leading to 58,657 active cases.

Protocol violations

In his presentation, Año also noted COVID-19 protocol violations.

From Feb. 13 to 19, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said there were 64,509 apprehensions involving people who were not wearing face masks. This figure is 9.69 percent lower than the one recorded a week before.

Fewer people – or 325 — were also apprehended for joining mass gatherings, a decrease of 22.99 percent from the previous week, while physical distancing violations totaled 23,539 or 6.33 percent lower.

In early January, the Philippines saw a quick spike in COVID-19 infections due to the Omicron variant, which experts said was more transmissible than the Delta variant.

At one point, active infections nationwide topped the 291,000 mark.

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