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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Ready for MECQ? MMC Chairman Olivarez backs easing of quarantine status

Ready for MECQ? MMC Chairman Olivarez backs easing of quarantine status

Published Apr 8, 2021 12:36 pm

Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez said that as far as the City of Paranaque is concerned, it is in favor of lowering the quarantine status for the National Capital Region Plus the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal (NCR-plus) since coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases have started to decline.

Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez (FACEBOOK/ MANILA BULLETIN)

In an interview on ANC, Olivarez, who is also chairman of the Metro Manila Council (MMC), said that he is in favor of reverting to the more relaxed Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ).

"Personally, with my coordination and meeting with our City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU), with the City Health Office (CHO), sa Parañaque po di po siya tumataas compared to last week (Upon meeting with the CESU and the CHO in Parañaque, COVID-19 cases have not increased unlike last week)," Olivarez said.

The MMC chairman said they will have a meeting on Saturday with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) on the Metro mayors' recommendation on the quarantine classification for NCR-plus.

He said the capacities of hospitals will also be considered by the MMC in its recommendation.

A shift to MECQ is one of the possibilities looked at as well by the OCTA Research Group.

OCTA research fellow Dr. David Guido, said this will depend if the case reproduction rate goes down to 1.2 or even 1.1 or 1 by the end of the second week of ECQ.

As of Monday (April 5), the NCR's reproduction rate is at 1.53.

On Saturday (April 3), due to the continued spike in COVID-19 cases, President Duterte approved the extension of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in NCR-plus for another week or until April 11, 2021.

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