Metro Manila, CAR, 6 other areas under GCQ in February – Palace

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila, the entire Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), and six other areas will be under general community quarantine (GCQ) for the entire month of February, Malacañang announced Friday.

In a televised briefing, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the following areas will be under GCQ from February 1 to 28:

• Metro Manila
• Cordillera Administrative Region (Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Baguio City, Ifugao, Kalinga, and Mountain Province)
• Batangas province
• Tacloban City
• Davao City
• Davao del Norte
• Lanao del Sur
• Iligan City

Other areas not mentioned will be under the more lenient modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) in the same period, Roque also said.

CAR’s quarantine classification shifted from MGCQ to GCQ after its healthcare capacity reached “moderate risk.”

This, after the Department of Health (DOH) detected the presence of the new coronavirus variant in Bontoc, Mountain Province, and in La Trinidad, Benguet.

The healthcare capacity rate refers to the number of intensive care units, isolation beds, and ventilators currently in use in an area’s health and medical facilities.

DOH classifies an area’s healthcare capacity as either critical, high risk, moderate, or safe.

“Critical” level means an area already reached more than 85 percent of its bed occupancy for Covid-19 patients while “high risk” means 70 to 85 percent of its Covid-19 beds are occupied.

Areas with a Covid-19 bed capacity of 60 to 70 percent are classified as “moderate” while areas fall under “safe” level if their bed utilization rate is less than 60 percent.

KGA