City Bans Kissing in Public as COVID Cases Surge

The Philippine capital placed two villages and two hotels on lockdown Thursday and police have renewed warnings against kissing, holding hands, and other public displays of affection after a new surge in coronavirus infections. Police say the ban will be strictly enforced and violators will be reprimanded. Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said police would not allow people to go in and out of their houses and the two hotels during the three-day lockdown and violators will be forced into a 14-day quarantine, the AP reports. Isolated residents will be given food boxes, and medical workers and other authorized personnel will be exempt. Authorities have blamed public complacency a year into the pandemic for the surge in COVID-19 cases, specifically in metropolitan Manila. (More Philippines stories.)