MAYOR LINO WARNS OF POSSIBLE LOCKDOWN

Numerous violations of health and safety protocols reported

“We may be facing a new lockdown and quarantine restrictions soon.”

We are working hard to make Taguig City safe and open for business, having the lowest number of active cases per population. However, the freedom of movement in Metro Manila and the recklessness of some establishments and citizens has begun to compromise the gains we have made over the last few months.

There have been neglect of orders for no social gatherings, parties with multiple households, overcapacity in restaurants, bars that operate in secret, and playing of contact sports like basketball that is unregulated.

Yesterday, we received numerous reports of these violations. I hope these establishments and citizens realize that their reckless behavior will bring us closer to another spike in our cases and a possible lockdown that would harm both our public health system and our economy that we have been working so hard to rebuild.

We have seen this before in Barangay Fort Bonifacio where  we went from having 0 to 300 cases in a week. Early detection and active disease surveillance allowed us to contain that outbreak and have all 300 recovered.

Now, despite being aggressive in opening businesses, we remain to have the lowest active cases per population in Metro Manila and around the world. As of today, Taguig has 7 cases per 100,000 population compared to the whole of Metro Manila with 22 cases per 100,00 population. Our city has lower active cases per population compared to Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Seoul.

We are on the right track but if we become careless, we will face bigger problems ahead.

We have seen it in homes that held parties, restaurants that disregarded rules, bars that operated despite the ban, and events that are unregulated or misrepresented themselves. Because of this, we may soon be facing an even more dangerous wave that will force us to impose a lockdown. It has happened all around the world, we’ve so far managed to avoid it with strong government regulation and citizen cooperation.

Let us stay disciplined and committed so we can continue to stop transmission, save lives, and be open for business safely.