Manila area casinos have been closed for over two months now, and it’s unclear when they might be allowed to reopen. As the country slowly starts to ease quarantine rules, government officials can’t seem to find common ground on just how safe it is for the population to leave their homes. That kind of confusion has City of Dreams (CoD) Manila and Okada Manila striking two very different tones in their recent announcements.

The situation is still unclear

The Metro Manila area has been in an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) since mid-March, with all non-essential work and travel prohibited. Basically, if you aren’t going to the hospital, an essential job, or to buy food, you could get arrested. That’s meant casinos in the Entertainment City, like Okada and CoD, have had to shut down entirely.

As the number of new infections has stayed roughly flat but consitent at 200 new cases per day, President Rodrigo Duterte hasn’t seen it fit to end the ECQ, instead opting to modify it to allow some businesses to resume. That meant a flood of people returning to work, and on the weekend, to the shopping malls.