Mayors Confused With Granular Lockdown, Wants Clearer Guidelines
GRANULAR LOCKDOWN – Metro Manila was supposedly shifting back to a general community quarantine (GCQ) with alert levels, but, Mayors are left confused.
As COVID-19 cases surged, the government placed Metro Manila and nearby provinces under stricter lockdowns. Meanwhile, the shift to a less strict general community quarantine (GCQ) was supposed to begin Wednesday.
However, mayors still wanted concrete guidelines regarding the government’s plans on the new “granular lockdown” policy. With this, Marikina Mayor Marcy Teodoro, during an ABS-CBN interview stated:
Sabi sa’min ‘wag muna i-articulate ang guidelines sapagkat pinaguusapan pa ng IATF (INter-Agency Task Force Against COVID-19).
Furthermore, the mayor emphasized that there should be clearer guidelines to avoid any issues. More importantly, she stressed that the credibility of policymakers was at stake.
Currently, the new granular lockdown system has yet to be discussed in detail. In lieu of this, Mayors from Metro Manila wanted the IATF to clarify which areas should be placed under lockdown.
Based on an article from ABS-CBN, authorities have to consider the number of COVID-19 cases and the presence of variants to justify lockdowns. Unfortunately, test results from the Philippine Genome Center arrive late.
Primarily, researchers attribute the delays to a lack of funding for better equipment, manpower, and facilities. Due to this, testing and tracing for new variants have gotten delayed.
Moreover, the local government was also told to consider their hospitalization rate. But, some patients were already from other localities.
Still, despite the unclear guidelines, cities such as Marikina continue their vaccination drive. Also, the excess of its supplies was also given to the nearby Pasig, said the Mayor.
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