2020 Luzon Enhanced Community Quarantine

The enhanced community quarantine in Luzon was a series of stay-at-home orders and ''cordon sanitaire'' measures implemented by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on the island of Luzon and its associated islands. It is part of the COVID-19 community quarantines in the Philippines, a larger scale of COVID-19 containment measures with varying degrees of strictness. The "enhanced community quarantine" (ECQ) is the strictest of these measures and is effectively a total lockdown.

There were three instances of the ECQ being implemented in Luzon. The first ECQ and first MECQ were implemented between March 17 and May 31, 2020. This was announced on March 16, two days after the government of the Philippines under Rodrigo Duterte placed Metro Manila under a "community quarantine" on March 14. It was implemented throughout Luzon from March 17 until May 15, and remained in areas with a moderate to high risk of infection until May 31. New degrees such as "modified enhanced community quarantine" (MECQ) and "general community quarantine" (GCQ) were introduced by the IATF-EID during the month of May as easing restrictions commenced, until all restrictions under ECQ and MECQ were downgraded to GCQ and "modified general community quarantine" (MGCQ) on June 1.

After two months of a relaxed GCQ status, a second MECQ was reimplemented in Metro Manila and its immediate surrounding provinces on August 4 and was lifted on August 18. Finally, on January 24, 2021, a second ECQ was restored in Tabuk while an MECQ was raised in four more municipalities in Kalinga. It was lifted on February 15. Due to a recent spike in COVID cases, especially in the Greater Manila Area, a third ECQ was reimplemented for the Holy Week starting on March 29 until April 4, which has since been extended until April 11, 2021.

The ECQ affected around 57 million people in Luzon during its peak. It also resulted in the mobilization of the national and local governments, with the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act passed to combat the epidemic. The effectiveness of the ECQ implementation was noted by a study made by the University of the Philippines, although there were also several documented cases of violations of ECQ regulations. Authorities then pushed for stricter enforcement, which in turn raised concerns of human rights violations.

Background

Following the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which started in Wuhan, Hubei, China, the Philippine government confirmed the country's first case of the disease on January 30, 2020, when the virus was detected in a Chinese national who traveled from Wuhan, China and Hong Kong. The second case was confirmed on February 2, the patient being the first death outside mainland China was also Chinese. Three days later, on February 5, another Chinese national was confirmed to the be third case in the Philippines. After a month, on March 5, the Department of Health (DOH) announced that the first Filipino in the Philippines confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 who is also the fourth case while the fifth case is the first case of local transmission since the infected person did not travel outside the Philippines. The sixth case that was confirmed on March 7 is the wife of the fifth case. In the following days, the number of cases steadily increased.

Lockdowns

Initial lockdowns

On March 8, 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Proclamation 922 placing the entire Philippines under state of public health emergency because of the COVID-19 threat that is looming in the nation. On the next day, March 9, Congressman Joey Salceda of the 2nd district of the province of Albay recommended a lockdown of the entire National Capital Region (NCR) for a period of seven days, in response to the COVID-19 threat. Some of Salceda's proposals for implementing the lockdown include banning mass transportation and stopping the operation of the Philippine expressway network that ply to and from the region, and canceling of classes and work. At first, President Rodrigo Duterte turned down the idea because it would "hamper the flow of basic commodities," although, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, opined that the lockdown may put into effect in some areas where there are reported community-based transmissions, but not the whole NCR.

On March 12, President Duterte announced the "community quarantine" of Metro Manila that would start at 12 midnight on March 15 up to April 14 that covers 16 cities and one municipality. Traveling through land, domestic air, and domestic sea from Metro Manila was suspended but with exceptions. For international travel, restrictions are imposed on those who came from countries with localized COVID-19 transmissions, except for citizens of the Philippines (including their foreign spouse and children) or holders of permanent resident visas and diplomat visas. Mass transportation vehicles are allowed to operate provided that persons riding these vehicles comply with the social distancing guidelines. Curfew has also put into place by the local government units (LGUs) of Metro Manila.

Expansion to Luzon

During the second day of the implementation of the Metro Manila community quarantine, on March 16, President Duterte declared a Luzon-wide "enhanced community quarantine" (ECQ) that aimed to further combat the effect of the continuing and increasing spread of COVID-19. It took effect on March 17 and was supposedly scheduled to end on April 12. This quarantine also included the Mimaropa region ( Occidental and Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) despite it being outside the Luzon island. The Luzon ECQ is described under a March 16 memorandum from Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea by the order of the President as compliance to Proclamation No. 929 (state of calamity of the whole Philippines due to COVID-19), Proclamation No. 922 (public health emergency) and Republic Act No. 11332 (reporting of communicable diseases law).

Extensions

April 30, 2020

On March 30, DOH Secretary Duque said that lifting the ECQ is "too early to assess," citing the Wuhan lockdown was still in effect even if the new COVID-19 daily reported cases are single-digit only. On the next day, March 31, the Spokesperson of the IATF-EID and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles revealed that the DOH will be the forefront on the technical working group who will set parameters that President Duterte will utilize for making the decision regarding the lifting, extension or expansion of the Luzon ECQ. He further added that science will decide on the matter.

The IATF-EID met on April 3 and came up with factors in determining the total or partial lifting, or possible extension or expansion of the Luzon ECQ. The factors include social, economic, security, COVID-19 epidemiological curve trends, and health care system capacity. National Task Force (NTF) COVID-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said that the President is set to decide on the matter between April 12 and 14. On a televised broadcast on April 6, Duterte said that he is considering to lengthen the Luzon ECQ up to the end of April 2020. On April 7, Cabinet Secretary Nograles said that Duterte accepted the recommendation of the IATF-EID to extend the Luzon ECQ to April 30. He further said that the "extension of the ECQ shall be without prejudice to the discretion of the President to relax the implementation of the ECQ in some local jurisdictions, or the granting of exemptions in favor of certain sectors, as public health considerations and food security may warrant." He also said that there is no need to expand the ECQ to the Visayas and Mindanao.

May 15, 2020

According to the April 20 statement of the newly installed Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, the President is 50/50 on deciding the lifting of the ECQ that is expiring on April 30. Duterte was set to decide on the fate of the Luzon ECQ on April 23 but Roque later said that Duterte will make a public address about the Luzon ECQ on April 24. He previously met with health policy experts to help him decide on the matter. According to Senator Bong Go, who was also present during the meeting, said that a modified quarantine is likely to be implemented after April 30. On the other hand, the WHO recommended on April 22 a gradual lifting of the lockdowns. The organization earlier advised the Philippine authorities to contemplate on the "epidemiological situation" with regards to the lifting of the Luzon lockdown.

In his address to the public on April 24, Duterte declared that the ECQ is prolonged up to May 15, 2020, only for Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Central Luzon (except Aurora), and other areas in Luzon that are deemed high-risk to critical-risk for COVID-19. These high-risk areas include Benguet, Pangasinan, Albay