Caloocan has no lockdown plan

Caloocan Mayor Oca Malapitan said there is still no need to impose a lockdown in his city amid the rising number of new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the National Capital Region (NCR), according to a report by Manila Bulletin.

Although Caloocan also saw a “huge increase” in its new cases in March, Malapitan said their new COVID-19 patients are not living close to each other, so a lockdown is not necessary.

“Wala ho, dahil inaassess namin ang mga kaso. ‘Yung mga nagpopositive, layo layo ang mga bahay (There is no plan for us to declare a lockdown because based on our assessment of new cases, those testing positive are not living close each other),” Malapitan said over DZBB interview when asked if the local government would also declare a granular lockdown.

“Kung mayroon man lockdown, iyong bahay lang o iyong compound na mayroong nagpositive (If we would have to declare a lockdown, perhaps, it would be a lockdown to be imposed on a house or a compound where there are positive patients),” he added.

As of March 9, data from the city’s health department showed the city has a total of 371 active cases.

In response to the surge in its new cases, Malapitan instead signed orders reinforcing the curfew hours of 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., implementing the use of quarantine passes of residents going to the market, and encouraging public and private establishment to use StaySafe.PH as contact tracing platform.

Meanwhile, Malapitan assured qualified workers, including delivery service providers, of unhampered movement amid the city’s enforcement of curfew hours.