MGCQ in Metro Manila by November? ‘Not an impossibility,’ says Palace

MANILA, Philippines — The shift of Metro Manila to the least strict quarantine level by November is “not an impossibility” considering the decline in the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases reported daily, Malacañang said Thursday.

“It is not an impossibility dahil talaga naman pong napababa natin ‘no,” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a televised press briefing.

“Pero nasa kababayan pa rin po natin ‘yan sa Metro Manila, alam na po natin ang dapat gawin: mask, hugas, iwas,” he added.

(It is not an impossibility because we have really reduced the cases. But that is still for our countrymen in Metro Manila. We already know what to do: mask, hand washing, and physical distance.)

Roque was reacting to the claim of the Metro Manila Council that the metropolis may transition into modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) by November if the decline in the number of COVID-19 cases in the region is sustained.

The National Capital Region (NCR) and several other areas will remain under general community quarantine (GCQ) until October 31 as decided by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Earlier, the UP-OCTA Research Team said there has been a decline in the number of COVID-19 cases reported daily in the Philippines, but it warned against easing community quarantine restrictions especially in Metro Manila, the epicenter of the outbreak.

While the downtrend is “encouraging,” Dr. Butch Ong of the UP Octa Research team said: “It can surge anytime.”

At present, the Philippines’ r-value (transmissibility value) is still at 0.82, below the international standards of >1, while the positivity rate is still at 9 percent, 4 percentage points higher than the 4 percent standard.

According to the latest data from the Department of Health, there are 311,694 confirmed cases of COVID-19 nationwide, including 253,488 recoveries and 5,504 deaths.

Of the total cases, over half, or 163,780 were recorded in Metro Manila.

/MUF