Manilla: On Tuesday, the Philippines’ Department of Health reported the 5867 new Covid cases, which brought the total number of cases in Southeast Asian countries to 677,653. The DOH even added that 20 more patients died from the deadly disease for which the death toll climbed to 12,992.
Such a sudden spike in the Covid cases has forced the Government to impose much more quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila and also in four adjacent provinces without constraining the overall mobility of the people.
Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Philippines said that despite the surge in the Covid cases, the economy will remain open and the two-week quarantine measures are enforced stressing the need to balance both the economy and the health.
He said, “The economy, which is already out of shape, will suffer if you shut down all the businesses, and that’s a problem. It will be a disaster for the country, so we need to balance things for now”.
Karl Kendrick Chua, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary stated that the two-week quarantine rules will allow the key businesses and services to operate. He said, “We will do all of this while ensuring that the majority of the people can still safely work, earn a living, and access basic services while adhering to minimum health and safety standards”. Due to the excessive impact of the global pandemic, the economy of the Philippines shrank to 9.5% in 2020.