The proposal of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to place the whole country under modified general community quarantine by next month alarmed the OCTA Research group.
Doing so will be dangerous since COVID-19 and the UK variant cases are going up in some areas according to OCTA Research fellow Ranjit Rye on Tuesday. He also said that the country has not yet even started its vaccination of medical frontliners.
According to the research fellow, acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua should look at the data instead of proposing to ease to the most relaxed form of community quarantine by March, including Metro Manila which remains to be the epicenter of the virus.
“Hindi pwede maging arbitrary, premature ang pagbukas natin, it would be risky… Ang call ng NEDA MGCQ buong bansa,” Rye said. “Hindi mangyayari iyan sa March 1 kasi may seryosong outbreak sa Cebu, Caraga, Kalinga. Huwag na tayo mag-usap ng deadline.”
It was also emphasized by Rye that although the situation in Metro Manila is getting better, coronavirus transmission in the region has not yet been managed, citing “upticks” in several cities specifically Navotas. He added that there is also a new case of the more transmissible COVID-19 variant that was recorded in Pasay City.
“Dapat mag-ingat tayo sa proposals natin, dapat ma-achieve ang basic requisites to move to MGCQ,” he said. “Sa ngayon wala pa tayo doon. We are not yet where we are supposed to be to move to MGCQ.”
