Palace explains Duterte’s decision to keep quarantine status of Cebu City, Metro Manila

Malacañang on Wednesday explained the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to retain the quarantine classifications of Cebu City and Metro Manila until July 15.

Duterte’s spokesperson Harry Roque said Cebu City is still under the strict enhanced community quarantine because it has a high COVID-19 positivity rate of 30% and its death rate is equal to the national average.

“That is why the President heeded also the recommendation not only of the IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force] but of [Environment Secretary Roy] Cimatu whom he sent there to be his personal envoy to exercise what he said was critical thinking on what should be done with Cebu City,” Roque said in an interview with CNN-Philippines.

The national government considered Cebu City as a COVID-19 hot spot. On Tuesday, the city logged 353 new infections, the highest number of new cases it reported in a single day, raising the total to 5,494.

The city also recorded 169 deaths.

Metro Manila has been under general community quarantine since June 1. Roque said the capital region’s quarantine status was not downgraded to modified general community quarantine since it still takes seven days for cases in the region to double.

He said for Metro Manila to be under modified GCQ, the case doubling rate must be around 10 days.

“It’s always science and data-driven,” Roque said.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III earlier said the country’s economic centers—Metro Manila and Calabarzon—should soon be placed under the more lenient modified GCQ “as quickly as possible” to boost the economy amid the pandemic.

The Finance chief also advocated for a targeted lockdown of barangays and companies where there was a high number of coronavirus infections.

“We are entering a new phase now, it’s a realization that we need to proceed with opening up the economy for people to literally survive and not just die from the disease,” Roque said.

“And in order to do that, we need to improve testing capacity to bolster the confidence of workers to go back to work. We need to trace, we need to treat, we need to have behavioral changes and of course the transport sector should be opened.” — RSJ, GMA News