RESTRICTIONS STILL IN PLACE
Starting from 16 May, Philippines will be classified based on the risk level with respective measures in place.
MEASURES
- On 11 May, the Philippine Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) amended the guideline in its resolution No.35 to lift the community quarantine in areas with low risk by 16 May. Starting from 16 May, the Provinces, Highly Urbanized Cities (HUCs), and Independent Component Cities (ICCs)will be classified based on the risk level.
- For low-risk areas, they will no longer be under community quarantine.
- For moderate-risk areas, they will be placed under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) until 31 May 2020.
- For high-risk areas, will be placed under Modified Community Quarantine (MECQ) until 31 May 2020. The new MECQ is more relaxed than Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), however, it has more restrictions compared with GCQ.
IMPACT ON FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- Under all quarantine scenarios (ECQ,MECQ, GCQ), Category I (Industries), including businesses and employees involved in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food manufacturing (only non-alcoholic drinks) and food supply chain businesses (supermarkets, grocery stores, food preparation establishments (only available for take-out and delivery services), and food delivery services are allowed to operate at full operational capacity with safety protocols. For alcoholic beverages’ manufacturers, they are disallowed to operate in the areas that are declared as ECQ, however, they are allowed to operate in areas that are declared as MECQ (50% capacity on-site) and GCQ (full operational capacity)
- In addition, the logistics service providers, including cargo handling, warehousing, trucking, shipping line, are allowed to fully operate under all quarantine scenarios. For import and export activities, the activities are operating as usual too.