Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 28) — President Rodrigo Duterte will address the nation on Monday night and will announce quarantine rules for January 2021, Malacañang said.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque confirmed that Duterte will hold a televised speech from Davao City, which follows the expected signing of the ₱4.5-trillion budget for 2021 on Monday afternoon.
Metro Manila has been under general community quarantine since June, which is in place until December 31. Last week, Roque admitted that authorities are closely watching case trends and hospital occupancy rates in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Calabarzon, and Davao Region as “candidates” for a possible tightening of rules.
Apart from the National Capital Region, Batangas, Iloilo City, Tacloban City, Lanao del Sur, Iligan, Davao City, Davao del Norte, and Isabela province are under GCQ until the end of the year. The rest of the country is under the most relaxed form of quarantine.
This will mark the tenth month of strict quarantine rules in the Philippines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are calls mainly from the government’s economic team to further relax movement restrictions and reopen more public transport routes to revive businesses from a deep recession this year, brought about by earlier lockdowns and strict rules meant to prevent infections. However, there are fresh concerns over the new variant of COVID-19 first detected in the United Kingdom, which has showed signs that it may be more infectious.
The President revoked his earlier approval of the pilot run of face-to-face classes in low-risk areas amid uncertainty regarding the new COVID-19 variant.
Meanwhile, Duterte claimed over the weekend that some soldiers already received China’s Sinopharm vaccine even without approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which Roque and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año have confirmed.
The FDA has repeatedly warned against receiving COVID-19 vaccines which have not been cleared for use in the country. So far, no vaccine has been approved for emergency or general use.
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