MANDAUE City Mayor Jonas Cortes has issued an executive order declaring a heightened modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) until Aug. 31, 2021 and mandating all residents to stay at home effective immediately.
The same directive also adopted the Cebu Province’s policy that requires all public utility vehicles (PUVs) to open the windows when transporting passengers.
Covered by this order are buses, vans for hire (V-hire), modern and traditional public utility jeepneys (PUJs), taxis, transport network vehicle service providers and shuttles.
Cortes issued the order on Tuesday, Aug. 17, as cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the City continued to climb. Three cases of the highly contagious Delta variant of Sars-CoV-2 were earlier detected in the City.
Even though the City has been under MECQ since Aug. 1, active Covid-19 cases increased by around 74 percent to 1,770 on Aug. 17 from 1,018 on Aug. 1 based on the Department of Health Central Visayas (DOH 7) case bulletins.
Stay home
Under EO 27, all residents, especially those under 18 and above 65 years old as well as immunocompromised persons and pregnant women, are mandated to stay at home. Violators will be apprehended and may be prosecuted.
Parents, guardians and heads of family are held “fully responsible” for the minors caught violating this directive.
They should also make sure that any member of the household who is waiting for a swab test result stay at home. Going out while waiting for the result will constitute a violation of the EO.
Exempted from the mandatory stay-at-home order are medical practitioners, emergency personnel, security personnel, government officials, drivers, media personnel, farmers, fishermen, agri-business personnel, employees of establishments permitted to operate, and persons who seek medical assistance.
Also exempted are those who need to secure goods and services from permitted establishments.
Curfew will still be enforced from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., although authorized persons outside residence (Apor) are exempted. A liquor ban also remains.
IATF guidelines
The EO also adopts the MECQ guidelines set by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, as follows:
– Essential establishments allowed to operate during enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) can operate in full capacity while those not allowed to operate in ECQ may operate at 50 percent capacity.
– Establishments are encouraged to offer work-from-home arrangement and other flexible work arrangements to employees, especially senior citizens, persons with comorbidities and pregnant women.
– Not permitted to operate are entertainment venues, recreational venues, amusement venues, outdoor sports courts, gyms, spas, swimming pools, casinos, horse racing, cockfighting, lottery, indoor tourist attractions, outdoor tourist attractions, meeting venues, personal care services, and indoor dining services.
– Government offices will be open with a skeleton workforce.
– Gatherings outside of residences and those held inside residences, but with any person outside of the household, are prohibited.
– Gatherings for necrological services, wakes, inurnment and funeral services for those who died of causes other than Covid-19 are limited to the immediate family.
– Individual outdoor exercise such as walking, jogging, running or biking are allowed, provided these are done in the residence, village or barangay.
Aside from these, EO 27 also prohibits travel into or transit through Mandaue from other islands except for authorized government officials and employees, health and emergency workers, law enforcement personnel, Apor, and cargo vehicles.
All persons entering Mandaue City from outside Cebu Island are required to present a negative RT-PCR swab test result, with the test taken within 72 hours, or a negative antigen test result within 48 hours.
Cortes directed the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Business Permit and Licensing office, barangay officials and other force multipliers to enforce the EO.