To extend or not to extend? IATF weighs option on NCR quarantine status
By Chito Chavez
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) is choosing between extending the enhance community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila beyond August 20 and shifting it to the less restricted modified enhance community quarantine (MECQ), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said Thursday, August 19.
If ECQ would be extended, the choice is whether it would be just for one week or until the end of this month, said Año who is also the vice chairman of the National Task Force Against COVID-19.
Año said the IATF will meet on Thursday to discuss the next quarantine classifications of various areas.
The DILG chief also stressed that no funds are available right now to provide cash aid to low-income individuals in case ECQ is extended.
Metro Manila was placed under ECQ from August 6 to 20 in light of the transmission of the Delta coronavirus variant in the country while Bataan and Laguna were placed in similar restrictions.
Bataan is under ECQ from Aug. 8 to 22 while Laguna was placed under the same protocol from Aug. 6 to 20.
ECQ is the strictest of all health protocols where only essential travels and services are allowed while MECQ is more relaxed with more businesses permitted to operate. (Chito A. Chavez)