The enhanced community quarantine in Luzon was a series of stay-at-home orders and cordon sanitaire measures implemented by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on the island of Luzon and its associated islands. It is part of the COVID-19 community quarantines in the Philippines, a larger scale of COVID-19 containment measures with varying degrees of strictness. The "enhanced community quarantine" (ECQ) is the strictest of these measures and is effectively a total lockdown.
There were three instances of the ECQ being implemented in Luzon. The first ECQ and first MECQ were implemented between March 17 and May 31, 2020. This was announced on March 16, two days after the government of the Philippines under Rodrigo Duterte placed Metro Manila under a "community quarantine" on March 14. It was implemented throughout Luzon from March 17 until May 15, and remained in areas with a moderate to high risk of infection until May 31. New degrees such as "modified enhanced community quarantine" (MECQ) and "general community quarantine" (GCQ) were introduced by the IATF-EID during the month of May as easing restrictions commenced, until all restrictions under ECQ and MECQ were downgraded to GCQ and "modified general community quarantine" (MGCQ) on June 1.
After two months of a relaxed GCQ status, a second MECQ was reimplemented in Metro Manila and its immediate surrounding provinces on August 4 and was lifted on August 18. Finally, on January 24, 2021, a second ECQ was restored in Tabuk while an MECQ was raised in four more municipalities in Kalinga. It was lifted on February 15. Due to a recent spike in COVID cases, especially in the Greater Manila Area, a third ECQ was reimplemented for the Holy Week starting on March 29 until April 4, which has since been extended until April 11, 2021.
The ECQ affected around 57 million people in Luzon during its peak. It also resulted in the mobilization of the national and local governments, with the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act passed to combat the epidemic. The effectiveness of the ECQ implementation was noted by a study made by the University of the Philippines, although there were also several documented cases of violations of ECQ regulations. Authorities then pushed for stricter enforcement, which in turn raised concerns of human rights violations.
Background
Following the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which started in Wuhan, Hubei, China, the Philippine government confirmed the country's first case of the disease on January 30, 2020, when the virus was detected in a Chinese national who traveled from Wuhan, China and Hong Kong. The second case was confirmed on February 2, the patient being the first death outside mainland China was also Chinese. Three days later, on February 5, another Chinese national was confirmed to the be third case in the Philippines. After a month, on March 5, the Department of Health (DOH) announced that the first Filipino in the Philippines confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 who is also the fourth case while the fifth case is the first case of local transmission since the infected person did not travel outside the Philippines. The sixth case that was confirmed on March 7 is the wife of the fifth case. In the following days, the number of cases steadily increased.
Lockdowns
Initial lockdowns
On March 8, 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Proclamation 922 placing the entire Philippines under state of public health emergency because of the COVID-19 threat that is looming in the nation. On the next day, March 9, Congressman Joey Salceda of the 2nd district of the province of Albay recommended a lockdown of the entire National Capital Region (NCR) for a period of seven days, in response to the COVID-19 threat. Some of Salceda's proposals for implementing the lockdown include banning mass transportation and stopping the operation of the Philippine expressway network that ply to and from the region, and canceling of classes and work. At first, President Rodrigo Duterte turned down the idea because it would "hamper the flow of basic commodities," although, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, opined that the lockdown may put into effect in some areas where there are reported community-based transmissions, but not the whole NCR.