MANILA (UPDATE) - A no walk-in policy is being implemented in vaccination sites in Metro Manila while under the enhanced community quarantine to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the interior department said Monday.

"During this 2-week lockdown, wala pong (there's no) walk-in sa mga (in our) vaccination centers," Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said during the Department of Health's media forum.

"We wish to emphasize that the mayors have all agreed, including the city of Manila, that in the 2-week lockdown, we will prioritize [and] ramp up vaccination. And in the process of the ramp-up vaccination, we have to ensure na walang kumpul-kumpulan sa ating mga (there's no gathering in our) vaccination centers," he added.

This comes after last week's chaos at inoculation hubs in Manila and Las Piñas as the capital region prepared to go back to a hard lockdown.

Malaya stressed those without QR code or vaccination would also not be allowed by police to pass through checkpoints.

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'NO HOME QUARANTINE'

During the news briefing, Malaya said that home quarantine was not "advisable" amid the presence of the highly transmissible Delta variant.

"We would like to emphasize to the public that home quarantine is not advisable and that all COVID-positives must be transferred to a quarantine facility," he said.

He said patients should recuperate at a temporary treatment and monitoring facility to deter household transmission.

"We call again our local government units to please implement the directive of IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) to prioriztize facility-based quarantine as opposed to home quarantine," Malaya said.

15,000 CONTACT TRACERS

As part of efforts to halt COVID-19 transmission, the interior official said the government would rehire some 15,000 contact tracers. Their contracts, signed in January this year, are set to expire in August, he added.

Malaya said the national government has approved their request of additional funding for contact tracing, which will continue until the year-end.

A bulk of contact tracers -- about 2,300 -- are deployed in Metro Manila, the epicenter of the country's COVID-19 outbreak.

Malaya said the contact tracers would be augmented by members of the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection and workers hired by the Department of Labor and Employment.

"We call on local government units to utilize these contact tracers for active case finding because that is the requirement under the alert levels," he said.

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