Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 25) –- A Metro Manila mayor backs the easing of quarantine restrictions in the region and neighboring provinces after observing some “social unrest in communities” amid unemployment and hunger due to lockdowns.
In a text message to CNN Philippines, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said she is “in favor of easing quarantine restrictions in the NCR Plus bubble to general community quarantine come the month of the May.”
The latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the unemployment rate crept up to 8.8% in February, or equivalent to 4.2 million jobless Filipinos.
Belmonte admitted that the city lacks isolation facilities and that they are eyeing additional isolations beds by the end of the month. She said the city is also ramping up its testing and contact tracing efforts.
“At the level of the QC LGU, we will be establishing even more isolation facilities, about 3,200 beds by the end of April, to care for asymptomatic and mild cases, and we will be scaling up testing and tracing,” said Belmonte.
“Our new RT-PCR machines donated by the Temasek Foundation are arriving next week. This will allow us to process about 600 more samples daily in our LGU-run lab as compared to before. By end of April, we will also have 20 community-based testing sites as compared to six when the surge started, and 12 today,” she added.
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Benhur Abalos also agrees with easing into GCQ should cases continue to slow down and as hospitals increase their capacity.
But Metro Manila hospitals would rather stick to strict quarantine restrictions than see another surge in COVID-19 cases.
According to Dr. Jaime Almora of the Philippine Hospital Association, their facilities are still trying to keep up with the number of patients despite a slower rise in the number of cases these past weeks,
“Sa amin sa hospital, we would prefer na the more i-strict quarantine measures, the better, pero alam naman natin na there are other factors to consider. Pero alam namin na nakakabuti kapag mas i-strict sana ‘yung control sa movement ng mga tao,” said Almora.
[Translation: For us in hospitals, we would prefer that the stricter quarantine measures, the better, but we are also aware that there are other factors to consider. But we know that it is better to be strict when it comes to controlling the movement of people.]
He also stressed that while they are in dire need of beds and equipment, they also lack the medical personnel to man the facilities.
“Ang maganda sana na mangyari kung may enforcement from government to deploy nurses who are not doing nursing jobs. Sa mga other businesses na nag-employ ng mga nurses, kung pwede sana nila maipahiram sana sa mga hospital,” said Almora.
[Translation: It would be great for the government to enforce the deployment of nurses who are not doing nursing jobs. In other businesses that employ nurses, perhaps they could lend them to hospitals for the meantime.]
According to OCTA Research, it may take some weeks before a consistent downward trend in the number of cases is observed.
However, if there is no other way in helping the economy but to open more sectors, OCTA Research says this needs to be thoroughly evaluated by the government.
“Based on the hospital projections it could take several weeks before hospitals could clear up. What we recommend is to re-evaluate these decisions periodically. Hindi naman natin kailangan sabihin na it would take one month pa (We don’t need to say that it would take a month) — it has to be looked at,” said Guido David of OCTA Research.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez earlier floated the idea of a shift to general community quarantine should more beds become available for COVID-19 patients. He refused to explain further to avoid preempting the decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force, which continues to evaluate its next move in controlling the surge in infections.
The modified enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and Bulacan is scheduled to lapse on April 30.
