MANILA - Six villages in the City of Manila are currently on granular lockdown as the local government aims to halt the spread of COVID-19, its local chief executive said Friday.

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said they have seen an increase in COVID-19 infections in the past weeks, which he said could also be attributed to neglect.

The city has implemented stricter health and safety protocols including ordering all government agencies in the city to limit the number of staff reporting in their offices.

“Your city government is going back to 24/7 operation to monitor if rules are being implemented properly by the enforcement agencies and barangays are doing their responsibility to contain infection and other simple medical protocol and other health rules. Ang city naman ngayon ay talagang tuloy-tuloy ang aming paghahanap o pagla-lockdown or what we call granular lockdown,” he said.

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In an interview on ANC’s Matters of Fact, Moreno said they locked down 6 barangays a few days ago.

“This will affect about 7,900 families—ang total na populasyon. Nabigyan na rin sila ng food boxes and we continue to trace and test a lot of people,” he said.

The local government earlier placed under granular lockdown two barangays and two buildings.

“Because of that, it paved the way sa ating mga tracers and tested a lot of people within the barangay in those communities and sa lalong madaling panahon natagpuan pa natin iba pang infected, na wala silang ka-idea na infected na sila, about 25 of them na nakuha ulit natin. Nakaraos na yun at nabigyan na rin natin sila ng food boxes,” he said.

As of Thursday, the City of Manila recorded a total of 32,228. Of the total, 2,096 are active infections while 29,288 have recovered, and 844 have died.

“Fully-equipped, logistically so far ang City of Manila because we are preparing for this kind of situation sakaling dumating yung worst scenario,” he said.