Coronavirus: Philippines shuts churches, curbs travel; AstraZeneca counters Indonesia concerns over pork in vaccine
- Eating inside restaurants in Manila will also be banned under new coronavirus rules unveiled on Sunday
- Meanwhile, India’s health ministry warned that a huge gathering of devotees for a Hindu festival could send cases surging
Churches in Manila will be closed, eating inside restaurants banned and leisure travel outside the Philippine capital curbed under new coronavirus rules unveiled on Sunday as the country battles a resurgence in infections.
The number of new cases has exceeded 7,000 for three days in a row – the highest since the start of the pandemic – taking the country’s caseload to more than 663,000 and straining hospitals.
Around half of the active cases are in Metro Manila where many of the 12 million inhabitants live in poor and overcrowded neighbourhoods.
“We have two goals: to reduce the transmission of the virus in Metro Manila and avoid the spread of the virus, especially of the new variants, outside Metro Manila because we know these are more transmissible,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.
The new rules will be in place for two weeks from Monday and also apply to the surrounding provinces of Rizal, Cavite, Laguna and Bulacan.
Public transport will continue to operate and workers allowed to commute as the government stops short of imposing another devastating lockdown in the country’s economic heartland.