Priests delivered blessings from the back of trucks and motorised tricycles in the Philippines on Sunday, adapting the deeply Catholic nation's traditions to the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

Locals lined up in front of their homes in a district of capital Manila, which is entering its fourth week of a lockdown that has brought the frenetic metropolis nearly to a halt.

The priests made signs of the cross as they rolled past waving residents marking Palm Sunday, the start of the week that culminates with the observance of Easter.

The quarantine that has shuttered schools and businesses and halted all social and religious events across most of the nation will likely be extended beyond mid-April, authorities said.

Easter is a major holiday in the Philippines when millions typically return to their family homes outside the capital, but heavy restrictions on movement will disrupt those trips this year.

Bans on large public events will also mean that typically thronged churches will be empty save for priests performing mass that will be live-streamed into tens of millions of homes.