On March 16, 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte has put the entire Philippine island of Luzon under an “enhanced community quarantine” to stop the spread of coronavirus infections. The president instructed the labour and social welfare departments to implement measures that would alleviate the burden of the lockdown on small business and wage workers. He also urged businesses to release the mandatory 13th-month pay to their employees. Millions of people in the Philippines were left confined after the introduction of surprise quarantine measures that have caused chaos in the capital, Manila, as countries across south-east Asia imposed sweeping restrictions in response to a recent wave of coronavirus cases. In the immediate aftermath of the lockdown, poor Filipinos especially were distraught by the prospect of contending with hunger. With no available sources of income and virtually nonexistent savings, many homeless and slum dwellers bore the brunt of the ECQ.
As for now, this is the official COVID-19 statistics in the Philippines:
