NCR mayors want stricter quarantine after IATF extends GCQ with heightened restrictions —Abalos

Metro Manila mayors will ask the national government to impose stricter quarantine measures as experts predict another COVID-19 surge caused by Delta coronavirus variant.

In a phone interview Thursday, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Benhur Abalos told GMA News Online that they will still push for stricter measures amid the extension of the general community quarantine "with heightened restrictions" in the region.

“Mamaya magmi-meeting kami ng IATF. Haharap ulit ako to petition that… Baka akala niyo nabalewala 'yan. No. 'Yan pa rin ang position ng mga mayors,” he said.

(We will have a meeting with the IATF later. I will face them again to make the pitch. You might think that our previous statement is already null. No. It is till the position of the mayors.)

IATF refers to Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, the government's policy-making body in addressing the pandemic.

According to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, the quarantine status in Metro Manila can still change depending on the outcome of the meeting with the IATF.

“That can change,” Duque told CNN Philippines when asked on whether the Thursday meeting between Metro Manila mayors and the IATF could affect the capital region’s risk classification.

“As what happens, usually, is the LGUs (local government units) after they have been put in a certain risk classification… some of them, they file their appeal to the IATF and then the IATF looks at and reviews the metrics,” he added.

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday approved the IATF recommendation to extend the current GCQ with heightened restrictions in Metro Manila to August 15.

Before the announcement, Abalos issued a statement regarding the suggestion of the Metro Manila Council, which is composed of mayors in the National Capital Region, to impose stricter measures.

The mayors even considered imposing two-week enhanced community quarantine, if financial aid will be provided to affected people, to address the increasing growth rate of COVID-19 cases in the region.

“Imposition of stricter quarantine measures will be requested by the Metro Manila Mayors to the IATF,” Abalos said in a statement on Wednesday.

“However, if the national government has available funds for the Social Amelioration Program (SAP), Metro Manila Mayors expressed NCR’s readiness to be classified under ECQ for a period of two weeks," he added.

The continued GCQ with heightened restrictions in Metro Manila was imposed even after experts from the OCTA Research Team recommended a "circuit breaker" lockdown for one to two weeks starting August 1 as the cases continued to rise in the region.

Metro Manila is currently averaging 1,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, according to OCTA Research expert Dr. Guido David.

OCTA Research said the early stages of a surge could possibly be due to the sprouting of Delta variant cases.

The Philippines recorded 119 cases of the more contagious variant. Of the number, four have died.  —KBK, GMA News