Tagaytay under community quarantine to prevent COVID-19 spread

Tagaytay City on Monday became one of the cities and municipalities that implemented community quarantine to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Tagaytay Mayor Agnes Tolentino declared the implementation of the community quarantine through Executive Order 331 dated March 15, 2020.

Under the EO, Tagaytay residents are ordered to stay inside their homes and "may only come out to work, purchase food or medicines, seek medical consultation/care at hospitals or to take out garbage."

People are also required to observe "social distancing" inside private and public places.

The EO also suspended classes in all levels in the city "until further notice." Likewise, visit to jail facility is prohibited.

Also suspended until further notice are gatherings "whether civic or religious in purpose," the EO states.

Government work, however, will not be disrupted. Government offices will still serve the public from Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but "on a skeletal work force scheme."

"The previously issued memorandum on the four day work week is hereby revoked," the EO says.

Clients and visitors on officials business coming from other localities are allowed to enter Tagaytay City Hall and other local government facilities "provided that they shall be subjected to necessary screening procedures before entry."

Instead of physical meetings, public and private entities are ordered to prioritize the conduct of teleconferencing.

President Rodrigo Duterte last week ordered the implementation of a month-long community quarantine covering the entire Metro Manila as a measure against the spread of COVID-19, which has so far infected over 100 people in the Philippines.

The Metro Manila quarantine took effect on March 15, 2020 and will last until April 14, 2020. --KBK, GMA News