Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has rejected the proposition to impose a "hard general community quarantine (GCQ)" or "soft modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ)" as a solution to the rising cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Philippines, saying it will only result in confusion among the public.

"Avoid 'hard' and 'soft' of anything. It will just confuse people!" Gatchalian tweeted on Friday night.

Explaining his position on Saturday, March 20, he said "inventing new terms such as 'hard GCQ' and 'soft MECQ' will just confuse people and result to more noncompliance of the rules."

"Sanay na tao sa (The people are already used to) GCQ and MECQ. Let's just stick to that," the senator told the Manila Bulletin.

Gatchalian, who previously chaired the Senate economic affairs commitee, also raised the concern that imposing anew stricter lockdowns after reopening businesses would hurt the economy.

"If you remember last year's revertion to MECQ halted the sudden spike of the virus. But MECQ is economically painful," he recalled.

He also said he does not favor a National Capital Region(NCR)-wide lockdown "at the moment".

Instead, he said local government units (LGUs) "should be very quick and strict to do localized lockdowns and they should also not allow home quarantine."

"Done strictly, the LGU-led lockdowns can be effective in curbing the spike we are experiencing now," he added.

The OCTA Research has suggested that placing the NCR under a "circuit breaker" lockdown like a "hard GCQ" or "soft MECQ" to address the spike of coronavirus cases.

"We are suppposed to be in GCQ, but in reality we have a very, very lax GCQ," said professor Ranjit Rye of the OCTA Research Group.

"If we don't deal with the surge now effectively and quickly, it will complicate our vaccination program," he warned.

The country recorded its highest single-day surge in COVID-19 infections on Friday, March 19, at 7,103. Total cases were 648,066, including 12,900 deaths.