ECQ, MECQ, GCQ… remember them?
On March 15, 2020, at exactly 12:00 mn, the entire Metro Manila was placed under a “community quarantine” or what is technically a lockdown due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
With its implementation, movements outside residences were restricted, with select passholders only being the ones allowed to go out for essential reasons.
Two days later, on March 17, 2020, the “community quarantine” was implemented in the entire island of Luzon, and was then renamed as “enhanced community quarantine” (ECQ) — the strictest of the tiered lockdown system.
Originally set to be implemented for a month only, the lockdowns were extended — although with some occasional loosening of restrictions when the daily recorded cases go down.
In September 2021, the government shifted to a five-level ‘Alert Level’ system.
In 2022, after a brief outbreak due to the Omicron subvariant of SARS-CoV 2 in January of that year, the lockdowns were officially lifted as the entire country was placed under ‘Alert Level 0.’