(Eagle News) –Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Tuesday, March 10, said a Metro Manila lockdown was “not yet” needed.
Año said this was because only a “few” of the confirmed 24 coronavirus disease cases had no travel history.
This means, he said, that there was no proof of a sustained community transmission.
The Department of Health said a sustained community transmission exists if there was an increase in the number of local COVID-19 with unestablished links.
According to Año, most of the confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country had either traveled to any of the COVID-19-affected areas, or had had contact with COVID-19 cases.
If we get to the point there is (a sustained community transmission), then maybe the lock down will be done, Año said.
Earlier, both the DOH and President Rodrigo Duterte thumbed down a lockdown of Metro Manila, calling it “premature” and “too early.”
“Once there is sustained community transmission, the strategy will be shifted from an intensive contact tracing to the implementation of community-level quarantine (or lockdown), and/or possibly, suspension of work or school,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III had said.