Quarantine restrictions in the National Capital Region (NCR) will not be relaxed yet, Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez said on Tuesday, April 27.
(Photo by Jam STA ROSA / AFP / MANILA BULLETIN)
"Sasabihin po natin di pa ho kayang mag-relax ng ating local government doon po sa quarantine po natin (I will say that our local government units cannot afford to ease the quarantine status yet)," Olivarez, who is chairman of the Metro Manila Council, said in a DZBB interview.
This he said, despite the continuing decline of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the NCR, based on the data presented by the Department of Health (DOH) to the Metro Manila mayors. He added that the occupancy rate of critical care facilities has gone down to 70 percent.
"Hindi katulad dati na may nakapila tayo sa mga emergency room (It's not like before that people are lining up at hospital emergency rooms)," Olivarez said.
He said they are currently evaluating data on the economy that they received from Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua to know the effect should they opt to extend the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ).
The MMC chairman said that they will come up with a consensus within the day and recommend this to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID).
The OCTA Research Group said on Sunday that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) reproduction number in NCR has gone down to 0.93 for the week of April 18 to 24. The reproduction number refers to the number of people that a single COVID-19 patient can infect.
The DOH and the OCTA Research Group have called for the extension of MECQ in NCR-plus (Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal).