President Rodrigo Duterte approved the downgrading of Cavite, Metro Manila, and several other areas to general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions starting May 15 until May 31.
He announced this after his meeting with officials of the Inter-agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on Thursday night, May 13.
The easing of quarantine measures was recommended by the pandemic task force to the President, in line with the recommendation of the mayors of the country’s capital region.
Other areas that will be under GCQ with heightened restrictions during the same period are Bulacan, Laguna, and Rizal.
GCQ will also be imposed in Apayao, Baguio City, Benguet, Kalinga, Mountain Province, Abra, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Batangas, Quezon, Puerto Princesa, Iligan City, Davao City, and Lanao del Sur.
Moreover, Santiago City, Quirino, Ifugao and Zamboanga City will be placed under modified enhanced community quarantine or MECQ.
Meanwhile, the rest of the country will be placed under the most lenient modified GCQ.
Cavite and other ‘NCR Plus’ areas were put under more stringent modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from April 12 to April 30. It was later extended from May 1 to May 14.
As of Thursday, the country reported a total of 1,124,724 cases of COVID-19 including 55,260 active cases, 1,050,643 recoveries and 18,821 fatalities.
