Last April 04, the city government of Davao officially placed the city under Enhanced Community Quarantine or ECQ with stricter rules and regulations in place. This stemmed out from an earlier quarantine measures that the latter already implemented from March 15 until April 04 as Community Quarantine or CQ . This was the first attempt of the city to control the spread and infection of colloquillically knowns as Corona Virus or COVID-19.

Today, May 04 marks the 31st day of the implementation of Enhanced Community Quarantine in Davao City. Under ECQ, majority of the offices and non-essential establishments remain close but groceries, hardwares, and public markets are open. Eateries and fast food chain restaurants are functional but only for take-outs and delivery through food delivery service providers.

Public Transportation has been halted with the exemption of taxis while the city government provided free bus rides for employees of essential establishments that are remain to be operational. All flights are still suspended until further notice. Alcohol ban is 24/7 and daily curfew is from 6 in the evening upto 6 in the morning, until the public health emergency is lifted.

Moreover, with the use of city government issued quarantine pass cards (aka Food and Medicine Pass), residents are allowed to go out of their homes to sort out their essential errands on specific days based on the number code on their cards and within only the district area the card holder resides or under. Medical emergency though is an exemption, which allow residents to go out anytime and to cross borders of other districts. This local policy is known as the number coding scheme and district clustering system of Enhanced Community Quarantine.

Last 15th April, city mayor Sara Duterte announced that the Enhanced Community Quarantine will be extended from April 19 to April 26. She also added that ECQ will be implemented in the entire Davao Region, which covers 5 other provinces. The extension was due to the new three positive cases in Davao City.

On April 23, during her interview over the radio, the mayor announced that the city has already started the preparations to lift ECQ and revealed to shift to another quarantine measure coined as Modified Community Quarantine (MCQ). The ECQ is supposed to end on April 26. This announcement was short-lived.

April 24 came, all of the mentioned plans made a day before were shelved. The Inter-Agency Task Force or IATF , the national coordinating agency and policy making body of the government in relation to COVID-19 responses recommended that " high-risk" areas of the country, which includes Davao City to have their current ECQ extended until May 15.

On April 27, Davao city complied to the recommendation of IATF by issuing Executive Order 28 officially extending the current Enhanced Community Quarantine until May 15 or until sooner lifted.

Below are some of the photos taken between April 15-May 04.

(This is a continuation of my story posted last April 15, covering the period of March 15-April 15.)

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