Metro Manila has a long way to go before MGCQ --Roque
Metro Manila still has a long way to go before it could shift to the less restrictive modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), Malacañang said Tuesday.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the doubling rate of coronavirus cases in Metro Manila must slow down to 28 days to qualify for the MGCQ level.
Metro Manila, considered the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, has a case doubling rate of around nine days, one of the factors for its general community quarantine status.
The capital region and four nearby provinces will shift from modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) to general community quarantine (GCQ) from August 19 to 31. These areas were placed under MECQ for the past two weeks only after the medical workers appealed for a timeout from the surge in cases of infections.
"To achieve a case doubling rate of 28 days, you must have less than 1 R0 (reproduction number) So parang hindi sapat ang one, it has to be less than 1 R0 for 28 days case doubling rate," Roque said during a televised press briefing Tuesday.
"So medyo malayo pa po ang tatahakin natin pagdating sa MGCQ. (So we still have a long way to go when it comes to MGCQ)," he said.
Apart from the case doubling rate, the critical care capacity is another factor that helps determine the quarantine classification of a place.
Roque said the critical care utilization rate must stay below the dangerous level of 70 percent. "Seventy percent above is dangerous, so below 70 is not dangerous . So we should not exceed 70% of our critical care capacity," he said.
As of August 17, the Department of Health reported at least 71 percent of the 3,700 isolation beds in Metro Manila hospitals are occupied.
At least 81 percent of the 1,7000 ward beds are in use while 70 percent of the intensive care unit beds are occupied. Around 43 percent of the 893 ventilators are also being used.
As of August 18, the country has recorded 4,836 new active coronavirus cases that pushed the total number of cases 169,213. Of the new cases, Metro Manila posted the highest number of infections at 2,959.