A soldier wearing a face mask guards an empty street following the lockdown imposed to contain the coronavirus disease in Manila, Philippines, April 24, 2020. (Reuters file photo) Hanoi (VNA) - The Philippines announced on May 12 an easing of restrictions on economic activities in its capital city of Manila from May 16 while extending a lockdown on the main island of Luzon to stem the coronavirus outbreak.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said some manufacturing sectors in the capital will be allowed to restart at up to 50 percent workforce capacity, with public transportation partially slated to start operating again.
More movements of people will be allowed in the other areas of Luzon, where quarantine protocols will be relaxed.
Workers in these areas will be allowed to go out and work, though in phases.
All airports and seaports in those areas will remain open but only to transport goods.
Luzon has been in strict lockdown since March 16, the day President Rodrigo Duterte declared an islandwide lockdown amid rising virus cases in the Southeast Asian nation.
Duterte, in a statement issued earlier, cautioned that the envisioned easing would not mean COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, has disappeared.
The President also stressed that the nation could not afford another wave of infection./.
VNA
