Covid-19: Philippines do about-face and maintain containment in Manila

The Philippines, in the midst of the outbreak of Covid-19 cases, did an about-face on Tuesday, September 7 and announced a continued containment of the capital Manila, 24 hours after announcing a lifting of this measure for more than 13 million inhabitants .

Read also Covid-19: lifting of confinement in Manila despite an outbreak of cases

The government had planned to move to “

” in the capital region from Wednesday, despite the record number of new contaminations due to the more contagious Delta variant.

It provided that travel bans apply at the scale of a house, building, street or neighborhood, rather than the entire city.

This would have eased restrictions on the rest of the region, which accounts for one-third of the country's economy, by allowing businesses to reopen their doors and encouraging local tourism.

A bloodless economy

But the government changed hands on Tuesday, explaining that the current rules would remain in effect until September 15, or until a localized containment experiment is put in place.

He did not explain the reasons for this change of course, which is a blow to restaurants in the Manila area which were preparing to reopen for the first time since August 6.

Beauty salons will also have to keep the curtain down and churches will not be able to accommodate worshipers for services.

Read alsoPhilippines: new confinement decreed in Manila in the face of the push of the Delta variant

President Rodrigo Duterte recently said the country could not afford further lockdowns.

Since the start of the pandemic, lockdowns and restrictive measures have left the Philippine economy bloodless, millions of people unemployed, and many families now living in dire straits.

With only 19% of the eligible population fully vaccinated and hospitals filling up at high speed, the authorities say they have no other choice but to impose lockdowns to slow the spread of the virus.

The Philippines crossed the threshold of 2 million cases last week and has recorded more than 34,000 deaths linked to Covid-19.