By Fernan Angeles
CITING figures that saw a declining trend in figures representing cases of COVID-19 contamination, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana hinted Metro Manila could be ready to return to general community quarantine (GCQ) status on August 18.
Lorenzana, who is also the National Task Force against COVID-19 chairman Delfin Lorenzana, said: “Yes, I think the trend is going down. Yesterday mga 3,000 na lang ‘yung bagong kaso, down from 6,000 previously,” he was quoted as saying in an interview.
“I think we are ready to go down. We cannot continue with the MECQ kasi alam na natin kung nasaan ang mga areas na may infection. ‘Yun ang tututukan natin, so that the others can also go to work,” he also said.
Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite and Laguna were earlier reverted to MECQ from August 4 to 18 following the appeal of the medical community for a “timeout” amid the rising cases of COVID-19 under relaxed quarantine protocols.
As of this posting, the Department of Health recorded a total of 129,913 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with additional 3,109 cases reported on Sunday. Government figures also show 59,970 are active cases, 67,673 are recoveries, and 2,270 deaths.
Most of the newly-reported cases came from Metro Manila with 1,700 cases, followed by Laguna with 169, Cebu province with 114, Rizal with98, and Cavite with 93.
Based on the DOH’s COVID-19 tracker, Metro Manila alone has already recorded a total of 71,145 confirmed COVID-19 cases (34,821 active cases, 35,231 recoveries, and 1,093 deaths).
Despite spike in figures, the government still claims they are on top of the situation.
“We are still in control. We placed NCR [National Capital Region] and four provinces under MECQ because we know that our hospitals are overwhelmed so we have to restrict the movement of the people but eventually, we hope the numbers will improve,” Año said in an interview on ANC.