By EMMIE V. ABADILLA Couriers should partner with companies in delivering basic goods so people can stay in during the lockdown. "The less people moving around outside, the better. Both supplier and delivery personnel should practice proper disinfecting measures to make sure that neither them nor the goods they transport will be infected,”says Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II. Specifically, the DICT is directing Private Express and Messengerial Delivery Service (PEMEDES) Operators and their duly-licensed messengerial workers partner with commercial establishments within their areas of operations. This is to ensure that our citizens and their families are able to obtain delivery of food, water, medicine, and other basic goods and necessities, while maintaining compliance with the guidelines for the enhanced community quarantine to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Without delivery services, households are forced to have at least one of members go to and congregate with other people at groceries, drugstores, markets, and other food and retail establishments to get supplies and basic necessities. This exposes them and their households to the risk of COVID-19 infection and further transmission. All PEMEDES Operators who are making such links, partnership, or similar arrangements, should provide their status reports to the DICT Postal Regulation Division via email to [email protected]. The DICT directive aligns with Department Order 004 prescribing guidelines for PEMEDES operations as a critical service amid the Luzon-wide quarantine. The DO provided for mandatory safeguards for PEMEDES workers, including proper identification of personnel moving about the community, as well as due care in the handling of deliveries and ensuring hygienic practices on the field. The DICT, through its Postal Regulation Division (PRD), provides regulatory oversight functions over the postal delivery service industry.