President Duterte may deliver another public address this week to announce Metro Manila's new quarantine classification as its stay under strict lockdown is set to end on August 20, Malacañang said.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque made the statement a day before the two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) imposed on the National Capital Region (NCR) due to the spike in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases expires on Friday.
In his press briefing on Thursday, August 19, Roque said the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases was set to discuss Metro Manila's new quarantine classification before presenting it to Duterte.
"Pag-uusapan po mamayang hapon ng IATF ang quarantine classification at meron pong tentative Talk to the People ang Pangulo sa Biyernes pero tentative pa lang po 'yan (The IATF will talk about it this afternoon and the President has a Talk to the People tentative on Friday)," he said.
Roque said Duterte's second Talk to the People this week may tackle the new quarantine classifications. However, he said this may not push through if the President will give him the authority to make the announcement instead.
Aside from Metro Manila, Laguna's ECQ status will also end on August 20. Meanwhile, Bataan, ECQ will end on August 22.
In his press briefing, Roque said there were only two options for Metro Manila-- either to stay in ECQ or downgrade to modified ECQ (MECQ).
He, however, reminded the public that an end to the ECQ does not automatically mean that the number of daily COVID-19 cases will go down.
"Hindi po ibig sabihin na matapos na ang ECQ eh bukas bababa. Hindi po (Just because the ECQ ended, it doesn't mean that the number of cases will go down. That was never the case)," Roque said.
"Siguro mga isang linggo pa bago tuluyang bumaba dahil nga po delayed ang reaction dahil it takes 14 days, yung cycle, ng hawaan sa sakit na ito (Perhaps it will take a week before the number goes down because of delayed reaction because the speed of infection takes about 14 days)," he added.