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Filipinos celebrated Good Friday, one of the most solemn holidays in Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation, with streets and churches deserted following a strict lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Main roads and highways were eerily quiet after religious gatherings were banned in metro Manila and four outlying provinces. The government put the bustling region of more than 25 million people under lockdown again this week as it scrambled to contain an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases.
Curfews imposed by the police in the capital region and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal were extended to 11 hours starting at 6 pm
The Philippines imposed some of the longest coronavirus quarantines and police shutdowns in the world, causing the economy to contract by 9.5% last year, the worst economic setback since the Philippines began releasing that fair economic data. after the Second World War.
It has begun to reopen the battered economy after infections began to decline and allowed non-essential businesses to resume, including shopping malls, video arcades and beauty salons, to alleviate unemployment and hunger. But infections reappeared alarmingly last month in spikes attributed to the spread of new variants of the coronavirus, increased public mobility and complacency.
President Rodrigo Duterte again imposed a lockdown on the country’s most populous region this week, allowing only essential business workers, government health and safety personnel, and residents with urgent errands to leave home. The lockdown may extend beyond Easter if the increase does not decrease, authorities said.
The rebound and a slow start to the vaccination program have put the Duterte administration under fire for what critics say was its failed handling of the pandemic.
The Philippines has reported more than 756,000 confirmed cases with 13,303 deaths, the second highest in Southeast Asia after Indonesia.
