Palace: Duterte, Cabinet meeting on Sunday over NCR's 'revert' to ECQ

President Rodrigo Duterte will be meeting with some Cabinet officials later in the day to discuss the call of the medical community to revert Metro Manila to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), Malacañang confirmed Sunday.

"The President will meet with key Cabinet members today to discuss yesterday’s letter from the frontliners," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement sent to reporters.

"I will make the proper announcement in due course," he added.

In calling for the return of Metro Manila to ECQ from August 1 to 15, medical associations in the country are hoping to "recalibrate strategies against COVID-19," according to the joint letter read by Philippine Medical Association president Jose Santiago in a virtual press conference.

“Health care workers are united in sounding a distressed signal to the nation. Our healthcare system is overwhelmed,” Santiago said.

“We have witnessed a consistent rise in the number of infections in these among other scenarios prompts us to act now and act fast,” he added.

Duterte on Saturday directed the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to act on the concerns of the medical community immediately.

Following this directive, members of the Cabinet and IATF gathered on Saturday night to deliberate on these concerns.

Earlier,  the DOH also said it was in discussion with health workers to figure out strategies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic amid calls of the medical community for "time-out."

For his part, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said he was to put forward medical frontliners' suggestion to the IATF. —LBG, GMA News