MANILA: Filipinos marked Good Friday, one of the most solemn holidays in Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation, with deserted streets and churches following a strict lockdown to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.
Major highways and roads were eerily quiet after religious gatherings were prohibited in metropolitan Manila and four outlying provinces. The government placed the bustling region of more than 25 million people back under lockdown this week as it scrambled to contain an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases.
Police-enforced curfews in the capital region and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal were expanded to 11 hours starting at 6 p.m.
The Philippines has imposed some of the world’s longest police- and military-enforced coronavirus quarantines and lockdowns, which caused the economy last year to contract by 9.5 percent, the worst economic setback since the Philippines began issuing such economic data just after World War II.
It has started to reopen the battered economy after infections began to taper off and allowed non-essential businesses to resume, including shopping malls, video game arcades and beauty shops, to ease unemployment and hunger. But infections surged back alarmingly last month in spikes blamed on the spread of new coronavirus variants, increased public mobility and complacency.
President Rodrigo Duterte reimposed a lockdown in the country’s most populous region this week, allowing only workers in essential businesses, government security and health personnel and residents on urgent errands to leave home. The lockdown may be extended beyond Easter if the surge does not ease, officials said.
The spike and a sluggish start of the vaccination program have brought Duterte’s administration under fire for what critics say was its failed handling of the pandemic.
The Philippines has reported more than 756,000 confirmed cases with 13,303 deaths, the second highest in Southeast Asia after Indonesia.
Good Friday and coronavirus lockdown empty Manila’s streets
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Good Friday and coronavirus lockdown empty Manila’s streets
- Infections surged back alarmingly last month in spikes blamed on the spread of new coronavirus variants, increased public mobility and complacency
At least three dead as migrant boat capsizes off Greek island
- UNHCR says 107 people died or went missing in Greek waters in 2025
ATHENS: The bodies of three migrants were picked up in waters off the Greek island of Crete during a rescue effort involving a commercial ship, authorities said Friday.
Twenty migrants were rescued by the commercial vessel which was directed to the area on the orders of the Greek Search and Rescue Center.
Most of them were Egyptians and Sudanese, and there were four minors among them, the Athens News Agency reported.
According to Greek public broadcaster ERT, an accident occurred when the vessel approached the migrants’ wooden boat. As the passengers tried to climb up ladders into the vessel a sudden movement caused the small boat to capsize.
The search for survivors was continuing with four patrol boats, an aircraft, and two ships from the European border agency Frontex, a spokesperson for the Greek coast guard told AFP.
According to ERT, survivors said about 50 people were aboard the wooden boat.
A second boat carrying around forty migrants was spotted in the area, triggering another rescue operation.
For over a year, migrants have been attempting the perilous crossing from Libya to Crete, the gateway to the European Union.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 16,770 people seeking asylum in the EU arrived in Crete in 2025.
Faced with the surge in arrivals, the conservative Greek government suspended the processing of asylum applications for three months last summer, particularly for those arriving from Libya.
UNHCR says 107 people died or went missing in Greek waters in 2025.
