MANILA— The Philippines may lift large-scale lockdowns, in a major shift from regional or province-wide COVID-19 restrictions, as the country's vaccination drive is picking up steam, an official said Friday.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the country might instead implement granular lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19, but the proposal has yet to be approved by President Rodrigo Duterte.

"Ang mangayayari dito sa shift of policy... hindi na magkakaroon ng malawakang mga lockdown kung hindi granular lockdown," he told Teleradyo.

(What will happen in this shift of policy... there will be no more wide lockdowns but granular lockdown.)

Granular lockdowns are normally imposed in a particular street or village with high incidence of COVID-19 infection. Imposing such restriction will be left to the decision of the local government unit, Año said.

Under granular lockdowns, authorized persons are also prohibited from leaving their homes, he said. Exempted from the policy are health care workers.

As for the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine, the country's strictest lockdown level, it would be up to the national government, Año said.

"Ito ang sinasabi nating living with the virus. Hindi rin maaapektuhan ng husto 'yung isang buong probinsiya o buong city na hindi na makagalaw," he said.

"Tamang-tama naman na by that time, mataas na rin ang ating vaccinated population. Naga-aadjust tayo sa changing time."

(This is what we call living with the virus. It will not affect the whole province or the city to the point of becoming paralyzed. It's also right that by that time, our vaccinated population will be higher. We are adapting to changing times.)

Metro Manila and the provinces of Laguna and Bataan are still under modified ECQ until the end of August.

Should the policy shift be approved by the President, Año said new quarantine classifications would be implemented by September.

Since the pandemic began, the Philippine government has imposed varying degrees of restrictions to thwart the spread of the coronavirus. A case surge wrought by the highly infectious Delta variant spurred recent heightened restrictions.

The country continues to battle one of Asia's worst COVID-19 outbreaks, tallying some 1.89 million infections and over 32,000 fatalities so far.

To date, there are now 13.3 million fully vaccinated people in the country or 18.87 percent from the government's target of 70 million.

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