MANILA – The National Capital Region (NCR) and its nearby areas are ready to return to general community quarantine (GCQ) after August 18, National Task Force on COVID-19 chairman Delfin Lorenzana said.
Lorenzana said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel yesterday that the trend of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in NCR was going down the past few days, which can be credited to its return to modified enhanced community quarantine since August 3.
“Yeah, I think the trend is going down. Yesterday mga 3,000 na lang ‘yung bagong kaso down from 6,000 previously,” he said.
He added, “I think we are ready to go down, we cannot continue with the MECQ kasi nga alam na natin nasaan ‘yung areas na may infection. ‘Yun lang ang tutukan natin so that the others can also go to work,” he added.
Based on the latest data from the Department of Health (DOH), the Philippines has a total of 129,913 COVID-19 infections, with 67,673 recoveries and 2,270 deaths.
Meanwhile, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the government will have to weigh public health and economic considerations before deciding whether to extend the stricter lockdown being imposed in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
“On the suggestion to make the MECQ effective for one month, this is a decision that has to be made by the Inter-Agency Task Force [for the Management of] Emerging Infectious Diseases,” Roque said.
“It entails a delicate balancing of protecting and saving people’s health to protecting and saving the economic health of the nation,” he added. “A prolonged lockdown could lead to grave economic consequences.”/PN
