Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 15) — The National Capital Region could experience a “rebound” of COVID-19 cases once it shifts from Alert Level 4 to level 3 this weekend, health reform advocate Dr. Tony Leachon said on Friday.
He said Metro Manila is not yet ready to ease quarantine restrictions and increase business capacity due to high positivity rate.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire did not rule out the possibility that cases may go up once the capital region transitions to Alert Level 3.
“Nandun naman lagi ang posibilidad na maaaring tumaas ang kaso, na maaaring bumalik tayo sa paghihigpit uli,” she said in an online media briefing.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority reported that NCR has vaccinated 78% of its eligible population, but it is far from the 90% needed to achieve herd immunity.
[Translation: The possibility that cases will increase once more, and that we will restrict movement again is always there.]
“We need to put the positivity rate below 5% and increase vaccination rate to at least 70%. That’s the time we can open our economy or else we’ll have trouble in terms of having a rebound in the next few weeks,” Leachon told CNN Philippines.
She asked the public and establishments allowed to operate to comply with safety protocols to prevent another spike in infections.
He also said the government has to identify which locality still has a high positivity rate, so more tests can be conducted in this area.
Although the positivity rate in the capital region has gone down from 25% as of Sept. 14 to 10% as of Thursday, according to OCTA, it is still far from the below 5% set by the World Health Organization.
Metro Manila will shift to a more relaxed alert level status from Oct. 16 to 31 after a steady decline in new cases.
