MANILA, Philippines — The current restrictions enforced on the “NCR Plus” area can be eased once healthcare demand has been lowered to at least 60 percent, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.
“For healthcare utilization, we need to see that the utilization will be down to at least 60% before we can say that we are at that safe level,” DOH Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire said in a Palace briefing.
“The health system should be able to manage and should be able to breathe and should have this decongestion before we can say that we can easily lift the restrictions for this community quarantine,” she added.
According to a DOH official, the National Capital Region’s total healthcare demand is reportedly between 78 and 80 percent.
“For ICU (intensive care unit) beds…almost 100% in most cities. So we need to bring that down so that we will be able to say that our healthcare system can manage,” she said.
“What would be most important really would be for us to look at the healthcare utilization,” she added.
Initially, the government imposed the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the government’s most stringent quarantine classification, on the “NCR Plus” bubble that encompassed Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal. The ECQ was scheduled to expire on April 4, but was extended for an additional week.
READ: ‘NCR Plus’ under ECQ again for one more week–Palace
Malacañang, on the other hand, has ruled out extending the ECQ in the affected region for a third week, preferring to impose a more lenient modified ECQ for a week after the existing status expires on April 11.
READ: Palace bats for week-long MECQ after extended ECQ
The country has seen record-breaking daily increases in COVID-19 infections during the ECQ, with the highest single-day rise of 15,310 infections recorded last April 2.
READ: Highest number ever: PH logs 15,310 new COVID-19 cases
On Monday, the Philippines’ COVID-19 case tally exceeded 800,00 after the DOH reported 8,355 new infections. Of the total, 143,726 are active cases.