Mayors to vote for Metro Manila’s new quarantine status

The mayors of the National Capital Region are set to issue a position on Wednesday on extending or changing the quarantine status of Metro Manila when the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) ends on Friday.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Benhur Abalos told ABS-CBN News that the Metro Manila Council would be voting since Tuesday night on their recommended status for the region.

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Voting will end on Wednesday, he added.

Malacañang had earlier said that the decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) on various quarantine statuses in the country would be announced on Thursday. At the same time, appeals and recommendations of local governments will be considered.

The task force also has a separate meeting for the initial announcement of its recommendations.

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It will be recalled that Metro Manila was subjected to the ECQ for August 6 to 20, a few days after the GCQ was extended with heightened restrictions.

The mayors then demanded a stricter lockdown due to the threat of the COVID-19 Delta variant.

Mayors to vote for Metro Manila’s new quarantine status

The OCTA Research group said the new -19 cases may reach 16,000 per day next week now that the COVID-19 reproduction number increase to 1.5 on Sunday.

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“Sa buong Pilipinas, 1.5 reproduction number. Tumataas pa rin,” OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said in an interview on Unang Balita on Monday.

(In the entire Philippines, the reproduction number is 1.5. It is still going up.)

However, the National Capital Region showed improvement, OCTA fellow Guido said.

“Sa Metro Manila, hindi siya tumaas kahapon. Bumaba siya ng konti. Noong Saturday, 3,989 cases. Pero kahapon, 3,640. Kahapon mas mababa siya kaysa doon sa past three days,” he said.

(In Metro Manila, the number of new COVID-19 cases did not go up yesterday. Instead, it went down a bit. On Saturday, NCR had 3,989 [new] cases. Yesterday, 3,640. This is lower than the numbers the past three days.)

Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded 10,035 new infections of  disease on Tuesday, August 17.

About 6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive this week, according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. That includes those from Sinovac, Sinopharm, Moderna, and AstraZeneca.

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