Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso will place the Sampaloc district under a two-day "hard lockdown" in an executive order he signed on Tuesday.

Based on Domagoso's executive order, the 48-hour ''hard lockdown'' of Sampaloc district starts at 8 pm on Thursday, April 23 until 8 pm on Saturday, April 25.

This means that residents must stay at home during that period, the mayor said.

Damogoso said the Manila Health Department reported that the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is in Sampaloc with a total of 99 carriers and 159 suspected persons as of 5pm of April 20.

Domogoso said the 48-hour shutdown will be implemented for the "purposes of disease surveillance, verification of testing and rapid risk assessment as the City response measures to the imminent threat posed by Covid-19 to the locality as well as to the entire city."

During the ''hard lockdown'', only frontliners which includes healthcare workers, police and military personnel, government employees, service workers (of pharmacies, drug stores and death care service establishments), barangay officials and media practitioners accredited by the Presidential Communications Operations Office and the Inter-Agency Task Force will be allowed to go out of their homes.

The executive order said "all other commercial, industrial, retail, institutional and other activities not mentioned in above exemptions in the said district shall be suspended within the specified period of the shutdown."

“Station commanders of police stations in the district are hereby directed to employ and deploy officers and personnel in strategic locations and areas in the district necessary for the effective implementation of the shutdown,” it added. Robina Asido/DMS