IATF mulls extending quarantine status to one month

MANILA, Philippines — The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases is looking into extending the duration of quarantine classifications from two weeks to one month, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said Monday.

In a televised briefing, Lopez said this proposal will benefit the government’s stability in policies it is implementing.

“May ongoing IATF meeting ngayon, pinaguusapan ito. At definitely we’re looking into longer term period ng community quarantine. In other words, baka hindi na 14 days, baka one month ang duration,” Lopez said.

(There is an ongoing IATF meeting and we’re talking about this. We’re looking into longer term period of community quarantine. In other words, it may not be 14 days anymore but one month duration.)

“Ang pinaka-benefit po nito, of course may stability ho sa ating pagkilos, sa pagpreprepare po ng reopening of the economy,” he added.

(The benefit of this is that there will be stability in our movement and in our preparation to reopening the economy.)

Lopez said this is still subject to President Rodrigo Duterte’s approval.

Since parts of the country were placed on lockdown in mid-March, the President announces new quarantine classifications of provinces every two weeks.

Duterte is expected to announce new quarantine measures Monday night.