DTI Sec. Lopez denies malls were filled with people over the weekend

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez on Monday denied that malls and other retail establishments teemed with people when their operations partially resumed over the weekend amid the easing of quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila and other areas.

During the virtual meeting of the New Normal Cluster of the House Defeat COVID-19 Committee, Lopez said he himself joined an inspection at some malls on Sunday to verify what the viral photos on the internet were showing.

"We checked personally some malls in the metropolis na usually on a Sunday afternoon, punung-puno ng tao [and] we can see na hindi naman ganun karami ang tao. While we were interviewing, doing a quick survey, the crowd is only about 20% of what a typical Sunday afternoon pre-COVID times. It's just about 20%," he said.

"The number of stores open actually. And despite some of the stores allowed to open, only about 20% also have opened up," he added.

Lopez said the only establishments that were actually fully opened were supermarkets and drug stores. Food establishments and restaurants, while back in business, only allowed take-outs and deliveries, he added.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has issued health precautionary measures to be practiced in malls even as quarantine restrictions in many areas have already been relaxed.

These include monitoring foot traffic, enforcing safe distancing, and limiting the number of people inside malls.

Lopez said they also came up with a simple formula to determine how many people should be inside a store or establishment to ensure proper physical distancing.

"For any space, let's say inside the store or inside the mall, at a maximum in any given point in time, there should only be one person per two square meters," he said.

"So, if a particular store inside would be about 50 square meters of free space, about 25 [people] would be the maximum at any given point in time," he added.

Apart from these measures, the DTI also urged malls to observe one-way foot traffic, put arrows and markers on floors, limit the number of people inside elevators, and ensure that a one-meter distancing is implemented when using escalators. --KBK, GMA News