Metro Manila's COVID-19 growth rate not around 200%, Roque clarifies

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Tuesday clarified that the two-week growth rate of COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila was not around 200%.

“It’s not 200%. It’s between 0 to 200%,” Roque said at a news conference in Malacañang.

“[The] daily attack rate is at 5.8 [cases] per 100,000 [population] and our two-week growth rate is at 45%.”

Roque said he was probably not clear during his discussion about the growth rate in an interview on Unang Hirit earlier in the day.

“Hindi lang po ako naging malinaw siguro pero hindi po ‘yan ang intensyon ko. Dine-describe ko lang po kung ano ‘yung bagong classification system,” he said.

Roque had said that the community quarantine classifications will now be based on two-week growth rate and daily attack rate.

Metro Manila will remain under general community quarantine next month.

The mayors in Metro Manila and a research group from the University of the Philippines had recommended to the government to keep the region under GCQ.

The UP OCTA research team had warned that a premature downgrade of the quarantine status in Metro Manila could increase the risk of a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections in December.  —KBK, GMA News