THE National Capital Region (NCR) and surrounding provinces should remain under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) until the end of July, according to OCTA Research Group.
In its July 15 report, OCTA said its recommendation was based on the moderate risk assessment on the region for the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
The assessment was developed by Harvard Health Institute, Bloomberg and Microsoft called “Covid Act Now”.
NCR and the provinces of Bulacan and Rizal are under GCQ with “some restrictions” while Laguna and Cavite are under GCQ with heightened restrictions until July 15.
OCTA also said that the low vaccination coverage and the state of Covid-19 in the regions surrounding NCR were also factors for their recommendation.
OCTA said that the national and local governments should continue their initiatives to expand testing, tracing and isolation protocols as well as ensuring stricter border controls to mitigate the transmission of the virus and its variants among provinces.
The group also urged continuous government funding for contact tracing as the current budget of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will run out by the end of August.
“Early detection of cases through effective testing, tracing, and isolation can help slow the spread of the variant.” OCTA said.
Replying to the report, Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Benjamin Abalos, Jr. said that they do not see any problem in extending the GCQ in the region until the end of the month.
“Siguro ok na po itong (Maybe it is okay on) what we have right now and kung sabihin ito ng mga expert, kailangan maghigpit ng konti, wala rin pong problema, kailangan (and if the experts tell us to impose restrictions, there won’t be any problem, as long as we are) guided by the experts’ opinion,” Abalos said during the Laging Handa briefing,.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd said that the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID)’s technical working group on data analytics will meet on Thursday to determine the quarantine classifications until the end of July.
