MANILA — The inter-agency task force leading the country's COVID-19 response has enumerated industries that are allowed to stay open during the one-week return to enhanced community quarantine of the Greater Manila area starting Monday to curb increasing infections.

Omnibus guidelines from the IATF state the following establishments are allowed to operate "with full on-site capacity" in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal during the ECQ from March 29 to April 4.

• Public and private hospitals;
• Health, emergency and frontline services, including those provided by dialysis centers, chemotherapy centers, and the like
• Manufacturers of medicines and vitamins, medical supplies, devices and equipment, including suppliers of input, packaging, and distribution
• Industries involved in agriculture, forestry, and fishery and their workers, including farmers, Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs), fisherfolk, and agri-fishery stores, and such other components of the food value chain
• Logistics service providers (delivery and courier services, cargo handling, warehousing, trucking, freight forwarding, port operations and shipping line
• Essential and priority construction projects, whether public or private, in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Department of Public Works and Highways
• Manufacturing related to food and other essential goods such as but not limited to soap and detergents, diapers, personal hygiene products, toilet paper and wet wipes, and disinfectants;
• Companies that manufacture and/or supply equipment or products necessary to perform construction or maintenance works, such as cement and steel, or spare parts
• Essential retail trade and service establishments such as public markets, supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies or drug stores, laundry shops, and water-refilling stations
• Food preparation establishments such as commissaries, restaurants, and eateries, but limited to take-out and delivery;
• Public and private financial service providers involved in the distribution of government grants and amelioration subsidies; and
• Business process outsourcing establishments (BPOs), and export-oriented businesses, including mining and quarrying activities.

Media establishments and their total permanent staff complement, inclusive of reporters and other field employees are authorized to operate at 50-percent on-site capacity, said the IATF.

Industries that can stay open "with an on-site skeleton workforce" include the following.

• Dental, rehabilitation, optometry and other medical clinics: Provided, that there is strict observance of infection prevention and control protocols. Provided, further, that dental procedures shall be limited to emergency cases only and that the wearing of full Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) by dentists and attendants shall be mandatory. Provided, finally, that home service therapy for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) shall be allowed
• Veterinary clinics
• Banks, money transfer services, including pawnshops only insofar as performing money transfer functions, microfinance institutions, and credit cooperatives, including their armored vehicle services, if any
• Capital markets, including but not limited to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Securities and Exchange Commission, Philippine Stock Exchange, Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corporation, Philippine Securities Settlement Corporation, and Philippine Depository and Trust Corporation
• Water supply and sanitation services and facilities, including waste disposal services, as well as property management and building utility services
• Energy and power companies, their third-party contractors and service providers, including employees involved in electric transmission and distribution, electric power plant and line maintenance, electricity market and retail suppliers, as well as those involved in the exploration, operations, trading and delivery of coal, oil, crude or petroleum and by-products (gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, jet oil, kerosene, lubricants), including gasoline stations, refineries and depots or any kind of fuel used to produce electricity
• Telecommunications companies, internet service providers, cable television providers, including those who perform indirect services such as the technical, sales, and other support personnel, as well as the employees of their third-party contractors doing sales, installation, maintenance and repair works
• Airline and aircraft maintenance, pilots and crew, and employees of aviation schools for purposes of the pilot’s recurrent training for flight proficiency and type rating using simulator facilities; and ship captains and crew, including shipyard operations and repair
• Funeral and embalming services
• Pastors, priests, rabbis, imams or such other religious ministers and their assistants whose movement shall be related to the conduct of religious services performed through online video recording and transmission, and necrological or funeral rites. Corolarily, immediate family members of the deceased who died of causes other than COVID-19 shall be allowed to move from their residences to attend the wake or interment of the deceased upon satisfactory proof of their relationship with the latter, fully complying with the prescribed minimum public health standards for the duration of the activity
• Security personnel licensed by the Philippine National Police - Supervisory Office for Security and Investigation Agencies;
• Printing establishments authorized by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and other government agencies to print accountable forms and other security documents
• Establishments engaged in repair and maintenance of machinery and equipment, including those engaged in the repair of computers and household fixtures and equipment
• Real estate activities limited to leasing only

"Transit by permitted persons to and from the above establishments anywhere within the area covered by ECQ shall be allowed," said the IATF.

The Philippines is battling a renewed surge in infections, including those of the new and more transmissible variants, prompting the government to tighten existing curbs in the capital and nearby provinces.

Coronavirus cases and deaths in the Philippines totaled 721,892 and 13,170, the second highest in Southeast Asia, with infections reported in the past nine days accounting for a tenth of the total.

— With a report from Reuters

Video courtesy of PTV