Malacañang said the quarantine classification of Metro Manila and nearby provinces will still depend on the criteria set by the government's coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic task force and that no crystal ball can tell otherwise.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque made the statement after a government consultant suggested placing the National Capital Region (NCR) and its neighboring provinces under the general community quarantine (GCQ) until December this year.
In his press briefing on Monday, Roque said the quarantine classifications for Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal, formerly known as the NCR-plus bubble, will depend on the figures.
"Depende pa rin po yan sa ating criteria (It will still depend on our criteria)," he said.
"Titingan pa rin natin ang (We will still look at the) daily attack rate, two-week daily average attack rate, and the critical care capacity," he added.
However, Roque said that anything was still possible.
"Wala pong crystal ball na makapagsasabi sa atin kung ano ang magiging kalagayan ng Metro Manila pagdating ng Disyembre (There is no crystal ball that can tell us what will happen to Metro Manila until December)," he said.
"Hindi rin po natin masisigurado na hindi makakapasok ang Delta variant at Lambda variant dito sa ating bayan (We also cannot ensure that the Delta and Lambda variants will not be able to enter the country)," he added.
The Delta and Lambda variants of COVID-19 were reported to be more contagious and deadlier strains of the disease.
On Sunday, independent research group OCTA noted a “flat trend” in the COVID-19 infections in the country, particularly in some of the areas with the highest recorded cases over the past week.
The group particularly cited the reproduction number in NCR that has increased to 0.91 after remaining below 0.90 since April 21. This shows that the number of infections in the region has neither gone down nor gone up significantly as compared to the previous week.
The development, however, prompted the government to ease the restrictions in GCQ and modified GCQ (MGCQ) areas. Metro Manila was placed under GCQ with some restrictions until July 15, 2021.
Recently, the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has allowed children aged five and up to go to specific outdoor sites in MGCQ and GCQ areas, except those under high restrictions.
Malacañang has explained that the IATF made the decision to promote the physical and mental health of children who have been prohibited from leaving their homes since the country went into lockdown in March last year.