The number of COVID-19 cases in the country may reach 140,000 by the end of August, with most cases coming from the National Capital Region, an expert from the University of the Philippines said.

With more than 2,000 additional cases recorded each day for the past three days, Dr. Guido David, a member of the UP-OCTA Research, said there is a possibility that the number of COVID-19 cases in the country by the end of July will exceed their earlier projection of 85,000.

“Mukhang possible umabot ng 90,000, and by end of August, 140,000 (There’s a possibility that the cases will reach 90,000, and by end of August, we may have 140,000),” David told DZMM Teleradyo.

David said if the trend of cases does not go down, the best that the government can do is to place NCR anew under a stricter quarantine.

“Sa ngayon mukhang makakatulong ‘yon, kasi nagsubok na tayo ng mga measures, random testing, localized lockdown, pero parang hindi yata gumagana. Unless may mga magandang ideas ‘yung gobyerno sana, baka mapilitan tayong bumalik sa mas strict na quarantine, di naman natin ginugusto ‘yan pero kung ‘yan ang kailangan mangyari, (Given our situation, I think imposing a stricter quarantine will help because we already tried other measures like random testing, localized lockdown, but it seems like it’s not working. Unless the government has other ideas, I think we might need to revert back to stricter quarantine and while we don’t really want that to happen, it’s what we need to do),” David said.

“Ang pinaka concern talaga natin ngayon ‘yung mga hospitals kung nag open tayo ngayon, kung i-allow natin ang GCQ (general community quarantine), ang mangyayari is kung may mga magkakasakit di na sila tatanggapin sa mga hospitals (Our main concern right now is our hospitals’ capacity. If we allow GCQ, and more get infected, hospitals will no longer be able to admit them),” he added.

David also noted that the trend of cases in Cebu City is already going down, which only means that most of the country’s cases are really coming from NCR.

“Na fa-flatten na yung curve sa Cebu (City), so ibig sabihin saan nanggagaling ‘tong cases na ‘to? Mostly sa NCR talaga. Iyong trend sa NCR is pataas, at saka di lang sa NCR, pati sa Calabarzon, nadamay din siya sa NCR (We have already flattened the curve in Cebu City, so where are the cases coming from? It’s mostly from NCR. THe trend in NCR is going up, and not just NCR, even Calabarzon),” he said.

Given the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, David suggested that the government reevaluate the measures being done to control the spread of the disease.