The streets of Metro Manila with a population of about 12 million people. It were eerily quiet and empty hours after the government sealed off the city in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus.
A corner coffee shop posted shortened store hours. In addition, the barista said that he was not sure if they would be open the next day.
A handful of trains and buses were still running, but were nearly empty.
“This coronavirus is worse than a war. We are all affected. But the worst hit are our livelihoods,” said taxi driver Bobric Caballo.
On a normal day, he makes about $50, which is substantially more than the minimum wage of $10 a day. These days, he is lucky if he can make $20. The pile of masks and can of disinfectant spray he now keeps in his cab are an added but necessary cost to protect himself from the virus.
‘Soft’ Lockdown
Checkpoints manned by the police and the military would serve as border patrols while classes would be suspended for one month. A curfew starting 8pm to 5am would be enforced.
However, Duterte stopped short of calling the restrictions a lockdown of the country’s economic hub.
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) under-secretary Jonathan Malaya admitted the implementation of the government checkpoints is a “logistical nightmare”, but “drastic measures”. “Drastic measures” is the requirement in this case.
A total of 56 checkpoints have been set up blocking the entry points to the 17 districts that make up Metro Manila. Police and military personnel who perform temperature checks on passengers manned the checkpoints.
At a news conference earlier on Sunday, Debold Sinas, head of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), he admitted that only half of the checkpoints have a thermal scanner.
“If there are still not enough thermal scanners, we will transfer the ones we have at our police stations to the checkpoints,” said Sinas.
Drastic Measures
The World Health Organization (WHO) had presented the results of a mathematical modelling exercise to the government. It indicated a scenario where up to 70,000 coronavirus cases could be seen in the Philippines.
The inaction was the caused which in the hand of health ministry right now. And also, it has lack of transparency in its handling of the virus.
A local test kit developed by scientists at the University of the Philippines, which drastically reduces the turnaround time for testing.
It is still undergoing a two to three-week field test before they can be made commercially available.