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The Interagency Working Group for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) is studying the possibility of extending the general community quarantine (GCQ) in Metro Manila until December.
At a press conference on Monday, Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said that members of the task force reached consensus to extend the GCQ in Metro Manila, which would run until October 31.
Roque said the working group was analyzing the initial data before deciding on the quarantine classification for Metro Manila, the epicenter of the 2019 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic in the country, after October.
The General Manager of the Metro Manila Development Authority, José Arturo García Jr., announced that the Metro Manila Council recommended such an extension to the IATF-EID.
Roque said it was also possible that Metro Manila could switch to the more lenient modified GCQ, noting the decline in Covid-19 cases in the region.
He stressed that under any quarantine, health protocols such as the use of masks and face shields would be enforced.
He said that what was being implemented in Metro Manila is a relaxed GCQ, which allows more people to leave their homes and businesses to reopen.
“We cannot hide in the cave as long as there is Covid-19 as some want (we cannot hide forever in our houses due to Covid-19, which is what some people are adopting),” Roque said.
In addition to the recommendation to extend the GCQ, the council also agreed to shorten the curfew hours in Metro Manila from 10 pm to 5 am, from 12 am to 4 am.
The council, made up of the region’s local chief executives, also agreed to allow people between the ages of 18 and 65 to leave their homes and increase capacity in churches by up to 30 percent.
Roque said it was the prerogative of local CEOs to shorten the curfew and ease age restrictions even without seeking approval from the IATF-EID.
However, the IATF-EID has to decide whether to heed the MMC’s recommendation to increase church capacity to 30 percent, he said.
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