MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos marked Good Friday, one of the most solemn holidays in Asia’s largest Catholic nation, with deserted streets and churches following a strict lockdown to slow 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.