Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 18) — An independent group monitoring the COVID-19 situation is in favor of the proposal to limit the entry of minors in malls for their safety.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier made the proposal to local governments after a two-year-old boy reportedly tested positive in a COVID-19 antigen test after a mall visit.
“Ang non-essential travel ng mga bata sana ma-limit… Bagama’t kailangan po lumabas ng mga kabataan, lalo na iyong hindi bakunado, sana i-limit ang pagpunta sa mga enclosed areas gaya ng malls,” OCTA Research fellow Ranjit Rye said in a Laging Handa briefing.
[Translation: We hope the non-essential travel of kids will be limited. While the children need to go out, we hope that they will limit the entry of kids in enclosed areas like malls.]
Rye said the public cannot be complacent despite the decreasing number of cases as the pandemic has not ended yet.
In the same briefing, OCTA Research fellow Guido David noted the country is logging 1,600 cases daily in the past seven days, down by 27% compared to the week prior.
He reiterated the daily average may drop to below 1,000 by the end of this month.
Rye also said they see a “positive outlook for…the whole country in the next month or so, assuming that the trend holds.”
He did not rule out another spike in cases due to eased restrictions. But in Metro Manila, “we won’t see the surges that saw over the last few months” due to the high vaccination rate, Rye added.
