Taho and balut vendors may resume work today as modified enhanced community quarantine measures take effect, but provided they continue to observe social distancing, the Palace said Friday.
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The easing of quarantine measures is mainly to allow industries to resume operations—although on a reduced workforce and still in strict observance of social distancing, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.
He said Metro Manila’s residents may also go for a walk or jog outside beginning today.
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“We have announced that in modified ECQ, jogging, running outside, and walking are now allowed,” Roque told ANC’s Headstart via Zoom.
Outdoor exercises will be allowed but safety protocols such as physical distancing and the wearing of face masks must still be observed.
“Now we can all exercise outside. We can run and we can bike, and we can walk,” Roque said.
Across the country, in areas where general community quarantine measures take effect today, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said non-contact sports such as tennis, golf, and biking would be allowed.
Lorenzana, head of the national task force on the government’s COVID-19 response, said only those sports where physical distancing could be observed would be permitted.
“The sports that are authorized now are non-contact sports like biking, tennis, and golf because they can distance themselves from each other,” Lorenzana said in a virtual presser.
He said contact sports such as boxing, wrestling, and basketball would remain prohibited, but he hoped that collision or contact sports would eventually be allowed once the situation improved.
Gyms, fitness studios, and sports facilities will also remain closed.
Trips to tourist destinations, sectors such as travel agencies, tour operators, reservation services, and sports facilities are still banned.
Also banned are cinemas, theaters, karaoke bars, libraries, archives, museums, cultural centers, massage parlors, and saunas.
Barbershops and salons are also banned, but the ban on these sectors is still being reviewed by the Department of Trade and Industry.
