Metro Manila, other areas should remain under GCQ after June 15 -Sotto, Angara

A general community quarantine (GCQ) should remain in Metro Manila and several other areas after June 15 amid the continuing threat of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

That is if Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senator Sonny Angara were to be asked.

The senators' pronouncements came ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte's scheduled announcement on Monday on the fate of Metro Manila and other areas still under quarantine.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año has said the national government is still monitoring the situation in Regions II, III, IV-A and in Cebu City.

"I think we should just maintain the GCQ status for now till June 30. I don't see a decline yet," Sotto said in a message to reporters.

"We can probably still maintain the GCQ and decide whether or not to return to [an enhanced community quarantine] for areas or LGUs with high concentration of infections," Angara, meanwhile, said.

Angara, a COVID-19 survivor, stressed that the public should also learn to adjust to the new normal.

"At some point, we really have to learn by doing, so to speak, to adjust to living with the virus along with all the lifestyle changes it entails," he said.

Apart from Metro Manila, other areas still under a GCQ are the following:

• Davao City
• Cagayan Valley
• Central Luzon
• Calabarzon
• Pangasinan
• Albay

-MDM, GMA News