Metro Manila residents will be able to go out and exercise during the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) beginning Saturday.

In a statement on Friday, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and concurrent MMC Chair Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. said the resolution prohibiting outdoor exercise will lapse by the end of the current enhanced community quarantine but will be allowed only from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.

“Outdoor exercises in NCR will be allowed for the period of MECQ starting tomorrow, August 21,” Abalos said.

While restrictions on outdoor exercise have relaxed, he said the current 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew will remain across the National Capital Region (NCR).

Unlike the previous MECQ, he said indoor and al-fresco dine-in services, personal care services such as beauty salons, barbershops, and nail spas will remain barred.

“Authorized persons outside of residence (APORs) including workers of essential businesses are allowed to go out. Non-APORs are not allowed to go outside except for emergency purposes and accessing essential goods and services,” Abalos said.

Religious gatherings will remain online or virtual; while services like wakes, inurnment, and funerals will be allowed as long as immediate family members of the deceased who died of causes other than Covid-19 can present “satisfactory proof” that they comply with minimum public health standards, he added.

Earlier, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) announced that NCR, Laguna, and Bataan will be downgraded to MECQ with strict implementation of “granular lockdowns” in areas with an increasing number of Covid-19 cases.

With the MECQ in effect, Abalos said granular lockdowns would be intensified and “double-up” mass testing, immediate isolation, and contact tracing to control the spread of Covid-19. (PNA)