About a quarter million people in Manila will have to go into confinement again after a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases, authorities in the Philippines reported on Monday.
The location is called Navotas, one of the sixteen cities that comprise the twelve-million-person capital, will have to stay at home for two weeks. The measure is expected to come into effect sometime this week, the Mayor of Navotas, Toby Tiangco, announced. The news has come only six weeks after a long and strict confinement period.
“I don’t know if this is really a solution,” Tiangco said, “but I am sure that in the very least, the number of cases will not increase.”
Within the framework of the new measures, residents will be allowed to go to work. Some first necessity shops will remain open only takeaway food will be sold in restaurants. The Manila police chief has been asked to deploy officers to enforce the lockdown.
Navotas is one of the poorest cities in Manila, and the number of new COVID-19 contagions in the city has increased in the last few days. According to official numbers, more than 900 cases of COVID-19 have been reported, and 59 deaths.
Manila’s confinement period started in the middle of March and went on until the early days of June. Containment measures have been put in place since then in certain neighborhoods after a new wave in the number of cases.
“People can be stubborn,” Tiangco said. “We have no other choice.” Navotas is one of the areas where the measures were deemed urgent.
With more than 57,000 cases, the Philippines has the second-highest number of infections in Southeast Asia, only second to Indonesia, with more than 75,000 people infected.
