Shape of things to come,,,hopefully

[scott h]

Granular lockdown system starts September 8

MANILA, Philippines — The government’s pandemic task force has approved the implementation of a granular lockdown system starting Sept. 8 with the National Capital Region (NCR) as pilot area, a Cabinet official said yesterday.

In a Viber message to reporters, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has approved the implementation of the granular lockdown system.

The NCR is under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) until Sept 7.

In an interview with dzBB, Lopez said the Department of Trade and Industry supports the scheme.

Earlier, Department of the Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said there was a consensus among government agencies to impose granular lockdowns instead of province-wide or city-wide quarantine restrictions.

Lopez said guidelines for the granular lockdown system are being finalized and would be released before Sept. 7.

Under the setup, only small pockets or areas with transmission would be placed under a hard lockdown and at different levels – from one to four, with four being the most stringent.

He said food would be provided to those in areas under hard lockdown. He also said more businesses would be allowed to open and operate at different capacities depending on the level imposed, and that health protocols like wearing face masks, face shields, distancing and ventilation would still have to be observed.

“There will be flexibility for LGU (local government unit) chief executives,” Lopez said.

For authorized persons outside of residence in areas under hard lockdown, he said it is suggested they not be allowed to go in and out, and employers should provide temporary housing or lodging.

If temporary housing cannot be provided, he said they would have to work from home.

The trade chief said the adoption of a granular lockdown system was in response to President Duterte’s wish for a more precise and responsive system.

“We have been implementing granular lockdown, but we fine tuned it, made it more specific so that hopefully, it will be more effective,” he said.

As Metro Manila and the rest of the country await another quarantine classification, the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday reported more than 20,000 new COVID cases, the second highest single-day tally logged in the country.

Based on the DOH’s case bulletin, 20,741 new COVID-19 cases were reported yesterday. Last Friday, the DOH documented 20,310 cases.

“All labs were operational on Sept. 2 while five laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System (CDRS),” the DOH said.

Currently, there are 2,061,084 COVID-19 cases reported nationwide.

The DOH also reported 189 new deaths, bringing the number of fatalities to 34,062 cases.

On the other hand, 21,962 COVID-19 patients recovered, raising the number of survivors to 1,869,376.

The DOH added there were 157,646 active cases, representing 7.6 percent of the overall tally. – Sheila Crisostomo

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/09/05/2124975/granular-lockdown-system-starts-september-8

Edited September 5, 2021 by Jollygoodfellow
Please right click and paste as plain text. Edited post

[HappyJack]

Control the people.  Control Control Control.

Almost as bad as Australia.

[Old55]

I miss Johnny 

[GeoffH]

6 hours ago, HappyJack said:

Control the disease.  Control Control Control.

Almost as good as Australia.

There... I fixed it for you 

Australia has one of the lowest deaths per capita from Covid, only a couple of countries are lower (New Zealand is one and they're using a similar strategy).

 

Short term pain for long term gain and it's got the support of the majority of Australia's population... that's democracy in action.

 

Edited September 5, 2021 by GeoffH

[scott h]

4 hours ago, GeoffH said:

Short term pain for long term gain and it's got the support of the majority of Australia's population... that's democracy in action.

My hat is off to our cousins down under.

2 huge differences though. 1) For the most part the citizens follow lockdown regulations and respect authority. 2) The Authorities actually enforce those regulations.

 

[Dave Hounddriver]

7 hours ago, GeoffH said:

it's got the support of the majority of Australia's population

 

[GeoffH]

There have been protests but the largest ones (in Melbourne) were the only ones that turned violent.

And the thing is those protesters are in the minority and their actions are being condemmed by most of the people.

Both major parties and the Greens are supporting lockdowns (to varying degrees), masking (to varying degrees) and vaccination.

And that follows the general feeling of most people.

 

It only takes a small percentage of a city of 5 million who disagree to get a few thousand protesters.

Edited September 6, 2021 by GeoffH

[BrettGC]

9 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

 

Darwinism in action.  Well that's the view of the vast majority of Australians.  

Interestingly the two states highlighted in that report have governments in power from the two different major political parties;  New South Wales (NSW) is conservative and Victoria (Vic) is centre-right.  

Whilst most Australians support the measures put in place, many are concerned with the powers governments have given themselves to enact these measures with no sunset on these powers at both the federal and state level.  A bridge to be crossed when we get to it I guess.  

As for the OP, NSW tried this granular system at the start of the current outbreak there.  It didn't work, mainly due to the nature of delta compared to the earlier strains. Whereas Vic went straight into hard lockdown (NZ style) and whilst the situation in Vic isn't great, it's significantly better than NSW.

Guihulngan City, in Negros Oriental - where the wife is - has instituted a curfew but no general lockdown as such.  On Saturday, AM (wife) and the rest of the family went to her aunt's 60th birthday party along with about 50 other people but had to be home by 8pm.  For reasons obvious to most I'm scratching my head over that one.  

 

 

[graham59]

11 hours ago, GeoffH said:

It only takes a small percentage of a city of 5 million who disagree to get a few thousand protesters.

True.

Every city and country has its share of ignorant fools (sadly, they are also the ones who receive the most attention, of course).

[Gandang Smile]

5 hours ago, BrettGC said:

Whilst most Australians support the measures put in place, many are concerned with the powers governments have given themselves to enact these measures with no sunset on these powers at both the federal and state level.  A bridge to be crossed when we get to it I guess.  

Violent protesters waiting for any excuse to put up a fight and smash a few windows are not the issue here.

The issue, as you wisely highlight in the above paragraph, is that there can only be so much lockdown and enforcement of punitive measures against citizens, professionals, business owners, etc. before even these moderate people (who moderately support the measures) start to have enough and become vocal.

Not wanting to add polemic fire but...usual dilemma...is the cure worse than the disease? 

Edited September 6, 2021 by Gandang Smile