Metro Manila mayors eye stricter community quarantine
IATF on Emerging Infectious Diseases is seeing good indicators that could merit the lifting of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in many parts of Metro Manila, according to DILG spokesman and Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya. Soldier on the quarantine chekpoint in the Manila, Philippines. Photo: Boy Santos. Sketched by the Pan Pacific Agency.
MANILA, Aug 18, 2020, The Manila Times. The recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and Metro Manila mayors to President Rodrigo Duterte regarding what kind of quarantine to be imposed was “unanimous,” Malacañang said, The Manila Times reported.
Earlier this month, the government placed Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).
In a virtual press briefing on Monday, Palace Spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said “for Metro Manila and the four provinces, let’s just say that the recommendation of the IATF and the Metro Manila mayors to the President was unanimous.”
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority General Manager Jose Arturo Garcia Jr. said if Metro Manila was placed under general community quarantine (GCQ), its mayors wanted it to be more strictly enforced.
Roque said the kind of quarantine for Metro Manila would be based on key factors such as case doubling rate, clustering of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases and critical care capacity.
“Pero siguro po, without preempting the President, ngayon pong araw na ito ay nag-i-inaugurate po tayo ng 250 additional bed capacity dito po sa East Avenue Medical Center [in] Quezon City na gagamitin po ‘to exclusively para sa mga pasyente ng Covid. So, kung kulang man datirati iyong ating mga kama para sa mga Covid patients, naibsan na po iyan dahil ngayon po meron na tayong 250 bed capacity (But, maybe without preempting the President, today we can inaugurate 250 additional bed capacity at the East Avenue Medical Ceneter in Quezon City, which will be used execlusively for Covid patients),” he added.
Over 80 medical societies had urged the government to reimpose a two-week ECQ in Metro Manila, which was then under GCQ. Cabinet members favored an MECQ, which Duterte approved.
So far, Roque said, the case doubling rate had worsened.
On Monday, the Department of Health reported 3,314 new virus cases, bringing the overall tally to 164,474 and the number of active cases at 49,034.
Among the active cases, 97.6 percent are mild or asymptomatic cases.
Eighteen more people were added to the death toll, which is now at 2,681.
With reports from RED MENDOZA
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