NCR needs reduced clustering of cases, hospital decongestion for MGCQ shift — DOH

Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / EDWIN BACASMAS

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila should see a reduction in clustering of cases and further decongestion of hospitals for it to shift to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), the Department of Health (DOH) said Tuesday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire explained that while Metro Manila has posed a “decreasing trend” of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases and an improvement in its health system capacity, the imposition of GCQ was extended as some areas in the region still record clustering of infections.

“So that’s one. If we can reduce the number of this clustering of cases and we can see that there is a decreasing trend of clustering in these specific areas, then we can be able to say that we can maybe shift into MGCQ,”  she said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.

“Another one would be the health system capacity. Though we were able to decongest our hospitals, we were able to bring down our critical care utilization to just about less than 60 percent from a once 81 percent at danger zone,” she added.

Vergeire said there should be further decongestion of hospitals in Metro Manila so that the facilities would be ready in case there would be another increase in the number of cases.

She noted that the government also does not want to be complacent despite the decreasing trend of COVID-19 cases in the region.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier announced that Metro Manila, Batangas, Tacloban City, Bacolod City, Iligan City and Iloilo City will remain under GCQ until the end of October.

Meanwhile, Lanao del Sur, including Marawi City, will be under modified enhanced community quarantine, while the rest of the country will be under MGCQ during the duration.

The new quarantine setups were announced as the DOH recorded a total of 307,288 COVID-19 cases with 3,073 new infections added to the tally on Monday. Of the latest count, 49,242 are active cases, 252,665 are recoveries, and 5,284 are deaths.

JPV