Palace hopes August 2021 ECQ in NCR will be last

Malacañang said Tuesday it is hoping that the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to be imposed in the National Capital Region (NCR) from August 6 to 20 to curb transmission of the Delta variant will be the last.

“So ang gusto lang po natin, we hope that this will be our last ever lockdown. Bakit po? Kasi tumataas na iyong numero ng ating pagbabakuna,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.

(What we want, we hope this will be our last lockdown because the number of vaccinated people is increasing.)

Under an ECQ status, only essential establishments and industries will be allowed to operate.

Roque said that as of Tuesday, 9.3 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Metro Manila mayors said they are targeting to vaccinate four million people during the ECQ period.

Roque said the two-week ECQ will also prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed, citing the evaluation of at least 30 experts from the Department of Health and other relevant agencies.

“We are not reactive, we are guided by science. Iyong inaasahan nating pagsipa ay hindi pa po mangyayari, until August 15.  Pero ako po, as movant na bigyan ng one week palugit ang publiko at ang gobyerno para paghandaan ang ayuda at iba pang mga bagay ay ayaw ko namang i-push na August 15 ang lockdown dahil baka mamaya too late na nga po iyon dahil nakikita nating tumataas na ano,” Roque said.

(The surge we are anticipating will not happen until August 15. And so we had a one week buffer to prepare, including the granting of cash aid to low income earners. We did not want to wait until August 15 to impose a lockdown because that might be too late.)

“Pero sa ngayon po, itong linggong palugit ay wala pong danger na mauubusan tayo ng hospital facilities dahil tumataas pero pinaghandaan naman po natin iyan noong mga nakalipas na araw,” Roque added.

(With one week buffer, there is no danger that our hospital facilities will be overwhelmed because we are preparing for this.)

Metro Manila was earlier placed under ECQ twice: from March 16 to May 14, 2020 and March 29 to April 11, 2021.—LDF, GMA News