Palace Reacts To Medical Community’s Call For ECQ In Manila
ECQ IN MANILA – The Malacañang Palace recently reacted to the call from medical frontliners to have the capital revert back to ECQ.
However, the palace did not say whether or not it will heed the frontliners’ call, according to a report in Inquirer.
Earlier, about 40 medical societies told the president, COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Secretary Francisco Duque via an open letter which says that the nation’s healthcare system is already at its maximum capacity and calling for a timeout via stricter quarantine measures.
“We propose the ECQ be used as a timeout to refine our pandemic control strategies addressing the following urgent conditions or problems: hospital workforce efficiency, failure of case finding and isolation, failure of contact tracing and quarantine, transportation safety, workplace safety, public compliance with self-protection, [and] social amelioration,”
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the current general community quarantine classification over the capital has already been a subject of discussion and debate among the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases.
“The Palace understands the delicate balancing act between public health and the economic health of the nation given that Metro Manila and CALABARZON make up 67% of our economy,”
“The strict lockdown in Metro Manila has served its purpose, and we need to intensify other strategies. It is for this reason that the local government units of Metro Manila has been directed to implement a strict localized lockdown/enhanced community quarantine in barangays where 80% of cases are located and the publication of these barangays.”
Based on the report, Roque said that they accepted the comments but did not state directly if the capital, as well as Central Luzon and Calabarzon will be placed under ECQ as highly suggested.
“We welcome comments of various stakeholders and we will include them in future IATF meetings.”
Roque previously said that the capital placed under stricter quarantine if the UP’s forecast that there will be 85,000 positive cases by the end of Julyis realized.
There are about 93,354 cases of COVID-19. as of July 31.
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