Duterte to announce COVID-19 quarantine protocol from April 5 to month end tonight

President Rodrigo Duterte will announce the COVID-19 quarantine protocol from April 5 until end of April on Monday night during his regular Talk to the People amid the surge of COVID-19 cases, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.

Roque said the President will have his regular Talk to the People after personally receiving the one million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government set at 4:30 p.m. and following the Inter-Agency Task Force meeting.

“Inaasahan po natin na sa Talk to the People, maisasapinal na iyong quarantine classification mula April 5 hanggang katapusan ng Abril, saka iyong issue ng assistance ng gobyerno [because of existing ECQ or enhanced community quarantine],” he said during the Palace briefing.

[We are expecting that during the Talk to the People, the quarantine classifications to be in effect from April 5 to end of the month will be finalized, as well as the issue on government assistance.]

Roque, however, could not say that the existing ECQ in effect in Metro Manila and adjacent provinces Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal will be extended.

Under ECQ, non-essential travels, services and businesses are not allowed to operate.

Roque said health professionals are batting for the extension of the weeklong ECQ, but studies showed that this will have little difference when it comes to  lowering the number of COVID-19 cases when compared to imposing other protocols.

“Kaya binabalanse po natin ngayon iyan [that's why it's a balancing act],” he said.

“Maselan po ang pagdedesisyon [We have to be delicate in making a decision]. We will consider the total health of our people,” Roque added.

Senator Christopher “Bong” Go earlier said the government has a P23 billion funding for aiding Filipinos amid the ECQ in NCR Plus areas, a figure later confirmed by Budget Chief Wendel Avisado.

Avisado said this amount will be good for 22.9 million people.

The Philippines has 105,568 active COVID-19 cases as of Sunday. 

The country started its COVID-19 vaccination program last March 1, but the COVID-19 vaccine supply is only at 1,525,600 doses of donated Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines so far. 

There are 1.7 million health workers in the country, meaning the country needs to secure 3.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate them. Health workers are first  in line in the vaccination program. —KG/KBK, GMA News