NCR, Bulacan, Batangas to remain under GCQ starting Sept. 1; Tacloban, Bacolod also GCQ areas

Iligan classified as MECQ area

President Duterte has announced Metro Manila, Batangas and Bulacan would remain as GCQ areas starting Sept. 1. Joining them are Bacolod and Tacloban. Iligan, on the other hand, will be under MECQ. The rest of the country will be under MGCQ./PCOO/

(Eagle News)–Metro Manila will remain under a general community quarantine.

President Rodrigo Duterte said in a speech aired on Monday night that apart from Metro Manila, Bulacan and Batangas are retained as GCQ areas starting Sept. 1.

The cities of Tacloban and Bacolod will join them as GCQ areas, while Iligan City will be under a stricter modified enhanced community quarantine.

The rest of the country, the President said, will be under the more lenient modified general community quarantine.

The President did not say up to when the quarantine classifications he announced would last, but an Inter-Agency Task Force resolution issued later stated that the declared quarantine protocols would last until Sept. 30.

Earlier, Metro Manila mayors recommended the region be retained as a GCQ area until the end of September, citing the need to  curb the rising number of COVID-19 cases and at the same time the need to reopen  the economy, Parañaque Mayor and Metro Manila Council chair Edwin Olivarez said.

But Olivarez said the decision to recommend the same to President Duterte still rested on the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.