Is Granular Lockdown Effective If the Case of COVID-19 Increases?

The granular lockdown will be applied if COVID-19 instances grow after the 2022 elections, according to the Department of Health. What preparations should DEPED make if lockdown is declared again? Despite the threat of COVID-19, several schools have begun to hold face-to-face classes. Are the Department of Education, teachers, and students prepared for this level of granularity?

What is a granular lockdown? “Granular Lockdown” refers to micro-level quarantine at the barangay, block, purok, street, subdivision/village, residential building, or house levels that have been designated as “critical zones (or CrZ)” by the DILG and Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF).

The Department of Education has recommended all schools prepare a contingency plan if students or teachers get infected with COVID-19. Before a school can earn a safety seal, it must complete a Contingency Plan as part of the SSAT. As a result, each school already has a plan of what to do if it encounters COVID-19 infections.

Despite the threat of COVID-19, the Department of Education carefully prepared the implementation to conduct face-to-face classes. The first step in preventing the spread of COVID-19 is to take primary precautions. The school must follow the AITF protocols to avoid infection.

According to USEC Myrna Cabotaje, “Hindi naman significant ang mga increase ng cases.” Although we should not be putting our guards down, tuloy-tuloy parin ang pagmonitor natin ng ating mga kaso. Kung sakali man maglolockdown, it will be yong granular lockdown na nasabi natin for the cases kung tumataas, “Usec Myrna Cabotaje-DOH/Chairperson, Nat’l Vaccination Operations said.

The Department of Health is optimistic that the Philippines will not see another hard lockdown. COVID-19 will not resurface because our country has a high level of COVID-19 immunization coverage. However, senior individuals must receive substantial booster immunizations.

Therefore, a hard lockdown should not be implemented in our country. Perhaps a granular lockdown, rather than a hard lockdown, would not be preferable to a hard lockdown because neighboring barangays or towns would not be affected if people were infected in one barangay. – Doki | Helpline PH