Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez on Thursday, Dec. 30, said that due to the alarming transmissibility of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which is wreaking havoc around the world, the National Capital Region (NCR) will remain under Alert Level 2 until Dec. 31 and granular lockdowns will be implemented in areas where there will be surges in COVID-19 cases.
Olivarez, in an interview over dzBB, said there is still no recommendation from the Metro Manila Council (MMC) on the next alert level that will be implemented in Metro Manila in January, 2022.

“Ang pinagusapan namin, until the end of the month, Dec. 31, bukas, Alert Level 2 po muna tayo... Pag-aaralan po nang mabuti ‘yan ng IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) at magkakaroon po ng pagpupulong ulit ‘yan with the MMC (We agreed that until the end of the month, Dec. 31, we will still be under Alert Level 2. The IATF will study that thoroughly and there will be another meeting with MMC),” he said in an interview on DZBB.
Areas with a growing number of COVID-19 cases will be placed under granular lockdowns, Olivarez added.
“For the meantime, kami po sa Metro Manila Council, pati mga local government units ay yun pong aming strategy na granular lockdown ay yun ang iiimplement. Kung saan meron pong clustering ay magkakaroon ng granular lockdown, either isang bahay lang o isang kalsada, para hindi naman maapektuhan ang buong barangay (For the meantime, we in the Metro Manila Council, as well as local government units, our granular lockdown strategy will be implemented. Where there is clustering, there will be a granular lockdown, either just a house or a road, so as not to affect the entire barangay),” he said.
“Tinitimbang talaga natin ang ekonomiya natin kasi talagang hirap na hirap na ang mga tao, yung hanapbuhay, mga negosyo, pati maliliit na negosyo hirap na hirap na yan (We have to factor in the economy because the people, the jobs, businesses, and even small businesses are really struggling),” the mayor pointed out.
Olivarez also said the MMC will propose to the IATF the possible implementation of mandatory vaccination in the NCR.