Enhanced Community Quarantine Over NCR, Selected Areas Extended to May 15

It’s official: the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) is being extended once more to May 15, 2020. In a televised address, President Rodrigo Duterte says the ECQ will remain up over Metro Manila until the middle of May, and the ECQ coverage will be expanded as well.

Aside from Metro Manila, ECQ will now cover the following areas:

• Benguet
• Pangasinan
• Bataan
• Bulacan
• Nueva Ecija
• Pampanga
• Tarlac
• Zambales
• Batangas
• Laguna
• Cavite
• Rizal
• Quezon
• Albay
• Mindoro (Oriental Mindoro and Occidental Mindoro)
• Catanduanes

The ECQ will also be expanded to cover high-risk areas in Visayas and Mindanao:

• Antique
• Iloilo
• Cebu
• Cebu City
• Davao del Norte
• Davao City

The rest of the country will be placed under general quarantine starting May 1, meaning people are allowed to go out of their homes for as long as social distancing requirements are met, and public transportation will resume at a reduced capacity.

The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases recommended the extension to the President after experts warned that lifting restrictions too soon could spark a second wave of infections.

The May 15 lifting target is the second extension.