Quirino province and Santiago City in Isabela will be under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) to contain the spread on COVID-19, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte announced Monday.

In a televised public address, President Duterte said the MECQ in Quirino province would last from April 1 to 15 while the restriction in Santiago City will be from April 1 to 30.

Meanwhile, areas that will be under general community quarantine (GCQ) beginning April 1 until April 30 include the Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Batangas, Tacloban City, Iligan City, Davao City, and Lanao del Sur.

“Aside from those places that I have mentioned, iyon ‘yong mga strikto, itong the rest of the Philippines modified general community quarantine lang,” President Duterte said.

The President has previously approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to place National Capital Region, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from March 29 until April 4.

“For de-escalation of the quarantine the — it will be loosened or stricter depending on the result of the surveys,” the President said of the lockdowns.

The IATF-EID has recommended a stricter quarantine measure anew following the spike in the number of coronavirus cases in Metro Manila and its adjacent provinces.

As of Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) put the total number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines at 731,894 after reaching a record-high of 10,016 new cases in one day. Active cases are now at 115,495, while there are 603,213 recoveries and 13,186 deaths. PND