Just as the Philippines slowly began its long-awaited vaccination rollout , so too did it experience a new wave of COVID-19 cases .
Throughout the weeks of late February and early March , the number of new COVID-19 cases reported by the Department of Health ( DOH ) exceeded 2,000 . Towards the end of the second week of March , the number of new cases breached the 5,000 mark , which was then considered the highest number .
However , that record would soon be broken when 7,103 new COVID-19 cases were reported on March 19 . The following day - March 20 , 7,999 new COVID- 19 cases were tallied , which became what was then the highest number of newly reported cases in a single day in the Philippines since the start of the pandemic . On March 21 , 7,757 new cases were recorded , which was then the third consecutive day of the number of new cases reaching above 7,000 . Most of these new cases were recorded in Metro Manila .
Hence , with the record-breaking rise of cases , President Rodrigo Duterte has demanded another 2- week long lockdown from March 22 to April 4 . Likewise , the entirety of NCR , Bulacan , Laguna , Cavite , and Rizal - known as the NCR Plus Bubble - have been placed under general community quarantine ( GCQ ) with the following additional restrictions : all individuals below the age of 18 and above the age of 65 are prohibited from going outside , restaurants are limited to delivery and / or take-out only , and curfew set from 10 p . m . to 5 a . m .
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque added that the lockdown will enforce a “ bubble ” type environment and will prohibit traveling in and out of the mentioned GCQ areas , though he also stated that authorized persons out of their residence would still be able to conduct essential travel in between the five mentioned areas .
During Holy Week , the Philippine government raised the status of the NCR Plus Bubble to enhanced community quarantine ( ECQ ) - the strictest classification in the country . It was maintained for two weeks until April 11 , when the area was downgraded to modified enhanced community quarantine ( MECQ ) for the rest of April .
This same phenomenon of rising cases has also been observed worldwide , with the World Health Organization ( WHO ) citing the new variants and early lifting of restrictions among the factors driving the global surge in cases .
The Department of Health ( DOH ) also seconded the notion that the spike in COVID-19 cases in the Philippines was due to the mutation of COVID-19 variants originating from different countries such as the UK variant ( B . 1.1.7 ) and the South African variant ( 501 . V2 or B . 1.351 ). To discuss , the two variants have changes in the spike protein , specifically the receptor-binding domain called N501Y . Likewise , this change in the spike protein can ease the transmissibility of the COVID-19 variant , meaning the enhancement of the ability of the virus to infect another cell and thus spread at a higher rate .
The main concern of the COVID-19 variants is that they are evidently more infectious , and , as of writing , have not been fully studied to understand if present vaccines will suffice and battle against the transmissibility of the COVID-19 variants .
Both the UK and South African variants were found in all Metro Manila cities last March 22 . As of then , the number of cases for the UK , South African , and Philippine ( P . 3 ) variants were all in the three-digit range . 223 cases of the UK variant had been reported by then , with 152 cases of the South African variant and 104 cases of the Philippine variant also having been reported . The majority of cases of the former two were recorded in Metro Manila , while the majority of cases of the latter were recorded in Central Visayas . Meanwhile , the number of cases of the Brazilian ( P . 1 ) variant still stood at 1 , the lone case being the original first reported by the DOH last March 13 .
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