Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez
MANILA – Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said on Wednesday a gradual lifting of enhanced community quarantine will be recommended to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases to ensure that the new norm of social distancing will be observed.
During the Laging Handa briefing, Lopez said lifting the community quarantine gradually will allow essential businesses and their supply chain to go back to their operations.
“What’s important is to bring back economic activities so that people can return to their jobs while we are still observing the new norm,” he said in Filipino.
He added companies should examine their employees who will return to work and ensure that they are not sick.
Lopez said even businesses are cautious about the total lifting of enhanced community that will end by mid-April.
Some economic activities like manufacturing of food, medicine and medical supplies, and hygiene products such as alcohol and disinfectants, export-oriented businesses, supermarkets and groceries, takeout and food delivery services, among others, maintain their operations during the Luzon-wide quarantine that started March 17.
Lopez said big events such as concerts and theater performances, or those with mass gatherings, will be discouraged even with the lifting of the enhanced community quarantine. (PNA)
