ECQ extension for 2 weeks to help curb COVID-19 surge —DOH

Extending the enhanced community quarantine by at least two weeks will help in curbing the spread of COVID-19 infections, the Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told a House inquiry that COVID-19 infections in the recent week have surpassed the peak the country experienced in the middle of March.

Vergeire said COVID-19 cases from the National Capital Region and Calabarzon were continuously increasing and that the said spike is faster than what occurred in August 2020.

"We may see a continuous decline of cases by further extending ECQ for more than two weeks or two more weeks as well as marked improvements in our minimum public health standard adherence and shortening the delays in the detection, testing, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine," Vergeire said.

Earlier, she said a one-week extension of the ECQ is being recommended to the national government, noting that an assessment of the progress of this present quarantine status will be made before the one week ECQ ends.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said extending the ECQ in NCR and nearby provinces would be the government’s last resort in addressing the surge in COVID-19 cases.

Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force would be meeting on Saturday, April 3, to decide whether the ECQ will be extended or not.

So far, the Philippines has recorded a total of 731,894 COVID-19 cases.—LDF, GMA News