As current quarantine measures are set to expire on July 15, government officials are starting to consider the numerous possibilities to economy hotspots like the National Capital Region, while also looking at its COVID-19 situation.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles on Sunday said a shift of Metro Manila to the more relaxed modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) is possible on July 16 as long as localized lockdowns are imposed immediately and properly.
It will be one of the two options to be proposed by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to President Rodrigo Duterte for his approval.
The second option will be to retain the general community quarantine (GCQ) in the National Capital Region (NCR).
“There are really two options dito, puwedeng MGCQ pero dapat mabilis ang mayor or sige i-GCQ muna natin para bigyan natin ng panahon na masanay ang mayor (There are really two options here, MGCQ but mayor should be proactive or retain GCQ to give mayors more time to adjust),” he said in an interview over DZBB.
Should the President decide to place Metro Manila under MGCQ, Nograles said he will expect local chief executives to quickly implement localized lockdowns in a particular barangay (village) for at least 14 days.
The IATF-EID will be meeting on Monday (July 13) to decide on quarantine classifications to be imposed when the current ones expire.
Last June 30, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III expressed his desire to have NCR and Calabarzon shift to MGCQ to revive the economy. He suggested localized lockdowns to focus on barangays with high cases and let the others jumpstart the ‘new normal.’
Currently, Metro Manila, Benguet, Cavite, Rizal, Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City, Ormoc, Leyte, Southern Leyte, and Cebu’s Talisay City, Minglanilla, and Consolacion are under GCQ until July 15. The rest of the country is under MGCQ while only Cebu City remains under the most restrictive enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
As of Saturday, the country has 54,222 confirmed Covid-19 cases with 14,037 recoveries and 1,372 deaths.
