Metro Manila will be a ‘living experiment’ on COVID-19 response — Palace

Malacañang said Wednesday Metro Manila will be a “living experiment” as the Philippines tries to keep COVID-19 infections under control.

In an interview with CNN-Philippines, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque refused to give a categorical statement when asked if there is a big chance that Metro Manila will return to modified enhanced community quarantine or stricter lockdown on August 1.

President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to announce on Thursday the new quarantine classifications across the country.

“If I were to answer that, then that precludes the President,” Roque said. “Metro Manila will be a living experiment and it’s an experiment that we believe we can be successful at, and it will be something that we can be proud of.”

Roque said Metro Manila’s quarantine status will be determined based on available data on case doubling time and critical care capacity.

“We’re now at 8.9 [days for case doubling time]. We actually improved because the higher the case doubling rate is, the better,” he said.

“It’s critical care capacity that’s the problem because ICU [intensive care unit] beds, we have reached around 80%. But there are steps that can be done – rationalization of hospital beds, including ICU beds, and if we have to, we will build more ICU beds really, for as long as the case doubling rate is under control.”

Roque earlier said that Duterte initially agreed with the recommendation by experts from the University of the Philippines to reimpose MECQ over Metro Manila from July 16 to 31.

But Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the government’s COVID-19 response, and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año appealed the recommendation after Metro Manila mayors promised to intensify the implementation of localized lockdowns.

Metro Manila has been under general community quarantine since June 1.

On Tuesday, the Philippines reported 83,673 cases, with 1,947 deaths and 26,617 recoveries.

Metro Manila accounts for 45,969 cases, including 30,851 active cases and 1,000 deaths. — RSJ, GMA News