Malacañang said on Monday that present data shows that Metro Manila may not downgrade to the Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) as President Duterte is set to announce new lockdown measures by Wednesday.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque made the statement after Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, the co-chairman of the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said that Metro Manila may eventually downgrade to MGCQ soon.
(OPS / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
In his Monday press briefing, Roque said the President may announce the new quarantine classification on Wednesday, June 15, the last day of the existing quarantine measures.
"Posible pong Miyerkules ma-a-anunsyo ang classification dahil meron pa pong last meeting ang IATF bukas po para sa final recommendation sa Presidente (It's possible that the new classification will be announced on Wednesday because the IATF will have a final meeting for its final recommendation to the President tomorrow)," he said.
However, Roque said people in the National Capital Region (NCR) should lower their expectations as case doubling rate and critical care capacity of the region do not suggest a relaxation of quarantine measures.
"Lilinawin ko lang po, bagama't wala pang decision at ang Presidente ang mag-i-issue, datos po ang tinitignan natin kung tayo po ay magluluwag (Let me be clear. Even though there is no decision yet, and the President will be the one to announce that, we are looking at data to determine if we should relax the quarantine)," he said.
"Siguro po (Perhaps) at this point, the data does not indicate na pupwede magluwag po at least sa Metro Manila, para lang po to manage expectations (that Metro Manila can downgrade to MGCQ, just to manage expectations)," he added.
Roque also said that relaxing the quarantine in NCR was not part of any recommendation made.
In an interview with Super Radyo DZZB on Sunday, Nograles said that the NCR may graduate to MGCQ soon if local government units (LGUs) are able to respond immediately should the number of COVID-19 cases in certain areas spike.
"There are two ways of thinking about it. Number one, pwede naman basta mas mabilis ang localized response ng mga LGUs (it is possible as long as LGUs are quick to respond)," he said Sunday.
"'Pag itong lugar na ito ay dapat, dahil nagspa-spike o nagsu-surge diyan, dapat mabilis ang pag-aksyon, iko-community quarantine mo 'yan for 14 days ganyan (If a certain area has a sudden spike or surge of COVID-19 cases, LGUs should act quickly and place it under a community quarantine for 14 days)," he added.
However, he said another option was to keep NCR under GCQ to give mayors time to get used to exercising their powers to place their areas under a localized community quarantine.
As of July 13, Metro Manila has recorded 56,259 COVID-19 cases, with 16,046 recoveries, and 1,534 deaths.
Roque, citing the World Health Organization (WHO), said the spike of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines can still be controlled.
"Sa nakaraan na anim na linggo, dumoble po ang mga kaso sa iba't ibang parte ng mundo, ayon sa World Health Organization. Pero kaya naman po ito ma-control (For the past six weeks, the number doubled all over the world, according to the WHO. But this can still be controlled)," he said.
According to WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom, the outbreak of COVID-19 is still controllable.
"There are many examples from around the world that have shown that even if the outbreak is intense, it can still be brought back under control," he said.
The case fatality rate of the Philippines is at 2.7 percent while the global average is 5.5 percent.