Malacañang has yet to receive a recommendation from Metro Manila mayors about the possible extension of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the National Capital Region (NCR) and other provinces partly because “it takes two weeks” before the impact of the total lockdown will reduce the number of daily cases.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque also refuted news reports that said Metro Manila mayors already had a meeting about the possible extension of the lockdown beyond August 20.
NCR and other provinces that are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases are put under ECQ, the strictest quarantine classification, from August 6 to 20.
“Wala pa pong rekomendasyon at nilinaw po ni Mayor Olivarez na bagamat nagkaroon ng ulat sa isang pahayagan na di umano ay nagmiting na ang mga mayor, wala pa pong ganyang pagpupulong na nangyayari (There is no recommendation yet and Mayor Olivarez already clarified that despite a report that the mayors already met, that did not happen),” he said in his virtual presser on Monday, August 16.
According to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the decision of the Metro Manila Council (MMC), which is composed of the mayors of Metro Manila’s 17 cities and the municipality of Pateros, will be based on data, local government unit (LGU) capabilities, and experts’ studies on health and the economy.
MMC is the policy-making body of the MMDA.
READ: MMDA chief denies NCR mayors recommended ECQ extension
However, Roque also noted that the number of daily COVID-19 cases before August 20 is not a good indicator of whether to extend the ECQ or not because it will take two weeks before the ECQ has its effect on the rising number of cases.
This, he said, is based on the country’s past experiences with lockdowns. The whole country went into lockdown for two months from March 2020 while the NCR Plus bubble that includes the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal went into lockdown in April this year.
“At kaya miski dumating ang abente hindi pa po rin natin makikita ‘yung pagbaba. Iyan po ang ating karanasan dun sa dalawang pagkakataong tumaas ang kaso natin at nag-ECQ rin tayo (Even by the 20th, we cannot see the decrease in cases. That’s our experience from the last two times that we had an increase in cases and we had to declare ECQ),” Roque explained.
The extension of the ECQ will still be based on data but with the focus on the “objective,” which is “total health.”
READ: Infectious disease expert in favor of ECQ extension in Metro Manila due to rising COVID-19 cases
“Bawasan ‘yung kaso pero hindi naman po pupwede na dadami ‘yung hanay nang nagugutom (Reduce the cases but it cannot be that the number of people who will go hungry will increase),” he said.
On August 15, the country logged 14,749 new cases of COVID-19, marking the fifth straight day of more than 12,000 cases since the pandemic began.
The Department of Health’s (DOH) case bulletin also showed 270 deaths, the fifth-highest reported in a day, bringing the total number of COVID-related deaths in the country to 30,340.