Enhanced community quarantine in Luzon

Enhanced community quarantine in Luzon
Enhanced community quarantine in Luzon
Part of COVID-19 community quarantines in the Philippines
	(clockwise from top) PNP checkpoint near the Valenzuela–Meycauayan boundary; Thermal scanning in Nueva Vizcaya; Documentary procedures for entering La Trinidad; Empty SM North EDSA transport terminal; Grounded planes due to halted operations;
Date	March 17, 2020 – May 31, 2020 (2 months and 14 days); August 4, 2020 – August 18, 2020 (14 days); January 25, 2021 – February 15, 2021 (21 days); March 29, 2021 – September 15, 2021 (5 months and 17 days);
Location	Luzon, Philippines, including its associated islands
Caused by	COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines
Goals	To contain the COVID-19 pandemic in Luzon.
Methods	Checkpoints, banning of public events, business and school closures, social distancing, among others.
Resulted in	About 57 million people quarantined (all of Luzon) until April 30, 2020; Lockdown measures loosened to GCQ and MGCQ status starting June 1, 2020;

The enhanced community quarantine in Luzon was a series of stay-at-home orders and cordon sanitaire measures implemented by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on the island of Luzon and its associated islands. It is part of the COVID-19 community quarantines in the Philippines, a larger scale of COVID-19 containment measures with varying degrees of strictness. The "enhanced community quarantine" (ECQ) is the strictest of these measures and is effectively a total lockdown.

There were three instances of the ECQ being implemented in Luzon. The first ECQ and first MECQ were implemented between March 17 and May 31, 2020. This was announced on March 16, two days after the government of the Philippines under Rodrigo Duterte placed Metro Manila under a "community quarantine" on March 14. It was implemented throughout Luzon from March 17 until May 15, and remained in areas with a moderate to high risk of infection until May 31. New degrees such as "modified enhanced community quarantine" (MECQ) and "general community quarantine" (GCQ) were introduced by the IATF-EID during the month of May as easing restrictions commenced, until all restrictions under ECQ and MECQ were downgraded to GCQ and "modified general community quarantine" (MGCQ) on June 1.

After two months of a relaxed GCQ status, a second MECQ was reimplemented in Metro Manila and its immediate surrounding provinces on August 4 and was lifted on August 18. Finally, on January 24, 2021, a second ECQ was restored in Tabuk while an MECQ was raised in four more municipalities in Kalinga. It was lifted on February 15. Due to a recent spike in COVID cases, especially in the Greater Manila Area, a third ECQ was reimplemented for the Holy Week starting on March 29 until April 4, which has since been extended until April 11, 2021.

The ECQ affected around 57 million people in Luzon during its peak. It also resulted in the mobilization of the national and local governments, with the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act passed to combat the epidemic. The effectiveness of the ECQ implementation was noted by a study made by the University of the Philippines, although there were also several documented cases of violations of ECQ regulations. Authorities then pushed for stricter enforcement, which in turn raised concerns of human rights violations.

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