PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has approved the reimposition of tighter measures against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in at least five more areas and retained the quarantine classifications for the rest of the country for April.

As announced earlier, the National Capital Region (NCR) and provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal are back under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) for Holy Week from March 29 to April 4, 2021.

“Halos back to zero tayo dito,” Duterte said during his regular public address Monday evening, March 29.

Two areas in Cagayan Valley region were reverted to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), the second most stringent form of quarantine, while three others will go into general community quarantine (GCQ).

Quirino province will be under MECQ April 1 to 15, 2021 while Santiago City in Isabela will revert to MECQ for the entire month of April.

The entire province of Isabela as well as the provinces of Cagayan and Nueva Vizcaya, all in Cagayan Valley, will revert to GCQ from April 1 to 30.

Baguio City and the provinces of Apayao, Kalinga and Mountain Province will remain under GCQ. The restrictions are extended to cover the entire Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), which means that the provinces of Abra, Benguet and Ifugao will revert to GCQ.

Other areas that will remain under GCQ are Batangas, Tacloban City (Leyte), Iligan Ciy, Davao City and Lanao del Sur.

The rest of the country remains under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).

Escalation of quarantine levels and risk classifications is based mainly on the healthcare utilization rate, according to Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases guidelines.

To de-escalate quarantine levels, the IATF looks at healthcare utilization rates, attack rates and case doubling time, among others.

Earlier Monday, the Department of Health announced 10,016 new Covid-19 cases, a new record high for the Philippines.

Although most of the cases are mild, the steep increase in infections has placed the public health systems in the capital and other areas under critical level. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)