MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila mayors will hold a meeting Tuesday night with health and economic experts to discuss whether or not to recommend an extension of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the National Capital Region (NCR).
This was according to Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chief Benhur Abalos, who said many considerations will be looked into when recommending the next quarantine status for NCR.
Metro Manila is currently under an ECQ, the government’s strictest quarantine classification, until Aug. 20.
“Sa totoo lang, mabigat sa lahat, mabigat sa national, sa lokal mabigat kay Juan dela Cruz ang nangyayari ngayon but still we have to make a wise decision dito, kailangan lahat ng anggulo tignan mo,” the MMDA chief said in a Teleradyo interview.
(Honestly, what’s happening is taking a toll in the national level, the local level and down to Juan dela Cruz but still we have to make a wise decision, all angles should be considered.)
These considerations include the number of rising cases in the region, the vaccination rate, the economic status of the localities, and the ability of each LGU to continue giving cash aid to their residents, among others, Abalos said.
“These are the things na pagaaralan by Tuesday night ng ating mga alkalde. Magmi-meeting po kami, kasama ng health experts, economic experts at iba iba pa pong kasama,” he added.
(These are the things that our mayors will look into by Tuesday night, they will have a meeting together with health experts, economic experts and others.)
According to Abalos, he will present the mayors’ decision to the government’s pandemic task force on Thursday, Aug. 19.
READ: No extension of ECQ in Metro Manila until Aug. 30 — MMDA
“This will be recommendatory to the president. Ang presidente na po ang maga-announce, si [Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque],” he added.
On Sunday, the Philippines logged 14,749 additional COVID-19 infections, bringing the number of active cases to 102,748.
So far, the country has recorded a total of 1,741,616 total confirmed cases of COVID-19.