President Rodrigo Duterte erroneously claimed that every single country in the world has imposed a lockdown in response to the rising cases of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).
STATEMENT
In a recorded press briefing aired at 1 a.m. on March 20, Duterte called on all Filipinos, particularly local government officials, to “abide by the directives of the national government,” being the ones at the forefront of implementing the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.
Duterte said:
“All over the world, there is confusion and chaos already because of these lockdowns. We are not the only ones into it. All countries of the world, as a matter of fact, are doing it. And that is why it adds more trouble than what is already there that we can handle.”
Source: Radio Television Malacañang, Message of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to local government units on implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine, March 19, 2020, watch from 8:09 to 8:32
FACT
As of March 19, only 23 countries out of 197 worldwide are on lockdown while some are implementing travel restrictions, according to several news reports.
In the Philippines, Interior and Local Government Spokesperson Jonathan Malaya explained that a lockdown refers to the restriction of people’s travel from and to a certain area by authorities. Duterte initially placed Metro Manila on community quarantine, then later expanded it to cover the entire Luzon island. Several local government units (LGUs) in Visayas and Mindanao have also placed their respective areas on lockdown. (See VERA FILES FACT SHEET: Understanding ‘community quarantine’ and ‘social distancing’ policies)
In an interview with VOX, Lindsay Wiley, a health law professor at the American University Washington College of Law, said “lockdown” is not a technical term used by public health officials or lawyers:
“It could be used to refer to anything from mandatory geographic quarantine (which would probably be unconstitutional under most scenarios in the US), to non-mandatory recommendations to shelter in place (which are totally legal and can be issued by health officials at the federal, state, or local level), to anything in between (e.g. ordering certain events or types of businesses to close, which is generally constitutional if deemed necessary to stop the spread of disease based on available evidence).”
Source: VOX, Italy and China used lockdowns to slow the coronavirus. Could we?, March 10, 2020
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he is not considering a lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, instead focusing on social distancing, according to news reports.
South Korea has tackled the global pandemic by providing free mass diagnostic testing to its citizens. (See VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Panelo falsely claims South Korea imposed ‘total lockdown’ to control spread of COVID-19)
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the pandemic is “accelerating” with more than 540,000 confirmed cases globally, according to a Johns Hopkins COVID-19 case tracker.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was “possible to change the trajectory”:
“You can’t win a football game only by defending. You have to attack as well. Asking people to stay at home and other physical distancing measures are an important way of slowing down the spread of the virus and buying time – but they are defensive measures.
Source: World Health Organization, WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19, March 23, 2020
To win, he said “we need to attack the virus with aggressive and targeted tactics – testing every suspected case, isolating and caring for every confirmed case, and tracing and quarantining every close contact.”
Ghebreyesus recommended six key actions to help suppress and stop transmission, and to stop the virus’ resurgence when lockdown measures are lifted:
- expand, train, and deploy your health care and public health workforce;
- implement a system to find every suspected case at community level;
- ramp up the production, capacity and availability of testing;
- identify, adapt and equip facilities you will use to treat and isolate patients;
- develop a clear plan and process to quarantine contacts; and,
- refocus the whole of government on suppressing and controlling COVID-19.
