In a bid to control the virus, with infection rates tripling after the lockdown was eased on 1 June, Philippines police are conducting house-to-house searches and asking citizens to report others they believe are infected, Reuters has reported. 

Philippine authorities and police will carry out house-to-house searches for COVID-19 patients to prevent wider transmission, amid rapidly rising death and infection numbers. Some areas are also returning to a stricter lockdown. 

The Interior Minister Eduardo Año urged members of the public to report cases in their neighbourhoods, and warned that anyone infected who refused to cooperate faced imprisonment. A 2019 law on disease reporting and surveillance was used as justification for the searches. 

In the Philippines, there have been 57,545 coronavirus infections and 1,603 deaths. 

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