MANILA (The Straits Times/ANN): The Philippines eased quarantine restrictions slightly for Metro Manila on Monday (May 31), but tightened the reins around regions seeing a surge in infections.
MANILA - The Philippines has chalked up over a million Covid-19 infections, hitting a new, grim milestone as it debates whether to keep quarantine restrictions in place to hold on to recent gains against the pandemic or reopen the economy further to stem massive jobs and corporate losses.
There were close to 9,000 new cases reported on Monday (April 26), bringing the nation s total to 1,006,428. Nearly 17,000 people have died.
The Philippines is the second worst-hit country in South-east Asia, after Indonesia, which has over 1.6 million Covid-19 cases.
Data crunchers said the number of cases in Metro Manila, where nearly half the infections were recorded, was going down following the strict restrictions under quarantine in place since mid-March.
MANILA - The Philippines is easing sweeping restrictions that have been in place for two weeks in its capital region and four nearby provinces, even though the number of Covid-19 infections remains high and hospitals are still overwhelmed.
Metro Manila and the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan and Rizal – home to 25 million, or a quarter of the country s population – will from Monday (April 12) till the end of the month be under a modified enhanced community quarantine from a previous hard lockdown, Mr Harry Roque, President Rodrigo Duterte s spokesman, announced on Sunday.
Mr Roque said the government was adding over 3,000 more beds for Covid-19 patients, which should ease pressure on hospitals. He did not address concerns over the still-high number of daily infections.