The country’s economic activities have been reduced to just half of usual capacity after the government imposed its new round of modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in Metro Manila and its surrounding areas this week, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).
In an online news briefing on Friday, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said that in the previous week, when the National Capital Region (NCR) was still under general community quarantine (GCQ), 75 percent of the national economy was already operational.
“With our situation now, this went back to 50 percent, now that Metro Manila is under MECQ and its surrounding provinces plus GCQ elsewhere. So the percentage of the economy, which open is now lower,” Chua said.
Economic benefits
The country’s chief economist, however, said the MECQ will eventually be beneficial for the country’s economy in the “near term.”
He noted the government economic team agreed with the imposition of the MECQ since business confidence and productivity will not be fully restored if there are still concerns Covid-19 infections.
Under MECQ, some “nonessential” establishments such as barber shops and salons were once again not allowed to operate and public transportation were also suspended.
NCR, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite, and Rizal were placed under MECQ from August 4 to 18, 2020, to allow overworked medical workers in the said areas to rest and give time for the government to intensify its testing, tracing, isolation, and treatment activities for Covid-19 patients in the said areas.
CODE teams
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire said they plan to use the two-week MECQ to go after clusters of Covid-19 in the grassroots level under their Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE).
She said they already identified 10 barangays in NCR, where they will initiate CODE, which is similar to the Dharavi model used by the Indian government.
“We are adopting the Dharavi model in Mumbai, where [the government] went house to house to investigate and ask questions. It’s like they’re tracing people who have symptoms in the barangay, what they are doing when they have symptoms, and also checking, who were exposed [to the infected],” Vergeire said.
She noted the CODE teams of DOH will not only look for those with Covid symptoms, but also the people, who have close contact with them so they could be isolated.
The team will also conducted Covid-19 testing in the areas they will visit as part of government efforts to minimize Covid-19 infections.