President Rodrigo Duterte is set to decide on Monday whether or not to extend the enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila and other areas with a large number of COVID-19 cases.
Duterte is expected to address the issue during his weekly televised briefing, as he reports to the nation his administration’s efforts in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
It will be the President’s third time to render a decision on the extension or lifting of the ECQ.
Over the weekend, all 17 Metro Manila mayors have agreed to make no specific recommendation to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) regarding the ECQ, saying they will abide with the President’s decision.
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority General Manager Jojo Garcia said the mayors agreed that there should only be one policy for all of Metro Manila. He said having different quarantine rules for every area is not an option, citing the difficulty in implementing them considering the contiguous and porous nature of their borders.
The Metro Manila Council, composed of NCR mayors and the MMDA, was expected to come up with its proposal to the IATF on whether to ease or maintain strict quarantine measures.
Garcia said the mayors instead presented to the task force three possible scenarios: extend the ECQ for two weeks, place Metro Manila under a more relaxed general community quarantine, or opt for a hybrid of both.
Earlier, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the mayors' pitch will be a "big factor" in the final recommendation the task force will submit to Duterte. The IATF-EID will discuss and evaluate the situation also on Monday, ahead of the final recommendation to the President.
Duterte will have the final say on whether to extend or ease the quarantine measures placed on Metro Manila and several provinces beyond May 15. He first placed Metro Manila under enhanced community quarantine on March 15, but it was expanded the next day to cover all of Luzon until April 12.
The Luzon lockdown was then extended until April 30. Metro Manila and several "high-risk" provinces have remained under strict quarantine.
As of 4 p.m. on Sunday, the Department of Health has recorded 10,794 COVID-19 cases in the country.
The DOH reported 77 of the new infections in the National Capital Region, 75 in Central Visayas, and 32 more in other regions nationwide.
Meanwhile, recoveries have reached 1,924 after 82 more patients survived the viral disease. Fifteen more patients have died, raising the death toll to 719.
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