Not much ‘advances’ in M. Manila’s COVID-19 doubling rate — Palace

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila’s COVID-19 case doubling rate remained at seven days, which is why its lockdown status remained at general community quarantine (GCQ), Malacañang said Wednesday.

President Rodrigo Duterte extended the GCQ imposed over Metro Manila until July 15.

“In the case of Metro Manila, we are doing good as far as the critical care capacity is concerned at an average of 35 percent. But the problem is the case doubling rate. It has remained at seven (days),” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in an interview over ANC.

“For MGCQ (modified GCQ), you need to be around 10 (days). Seven (days) is only the minimum for GCQ. We’ve not made substantial advances in Metro Manila unlike in places such as Batangas, Laguna and Quezon where they have achieved a doubling rate of 10 days,” he went on.

Cavite and Rizal are also under GCQ while Batangas, Laguna and Quezon are under MGCQ.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez on Tuesday called for Metro Manila and Calabarzon’s shift to MGCQ to jumpstart the economy.

“We’re moving towards what Secretary Dominguez said and that is a fundamental change in assumptions,” Roque said.

“The fact that the President and the IATF (Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) agreed with the economic team that we have moved past the point of giving all priority to the health of the people and that we should now move towards opening the economy, so the people will now have livelihood,” he added.

The government’s COVID-19 task force is looking into easing lockdown measures in Metro Manila, Calabarzon and Central Luzon to revive the country’s economy from the impact of the pandemic.

Nationwide, there are 37,514 COVID-19 cases with 1,266 deaths and 10,233 recoveries.

EDV