By JHON ALDRIN CASINAS
As the government maintained the general community quarantine (GCQ) status in Metro Manila and other provinces for next month, an independent research group has expressed concern over the increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases observed in the capital region in recent days.
Dr. Guido David of the OCTA Research Group said they are seeing a surge in the number of new COVID-19 cases in the National Capital Region (NCR), with its rate of increase similar to those monitored in Cebu City and in the Mountain Province in the recent weeks.
“This is actually very concerning,” David said in a press briefing Saturday. “For the past two day we’ve been getting 900 cases per day in Metro Manila and the last time that we’re getting 900 cases per day in Metro Manila was back in October last year,” he added.
David said the reproduction number of the metropolis currently sits at 1.4. “If the number of cases continues to increase, we will have 2,500 or more cases and that is concerning because these are the levels we saw back in August,” he said.
The number of new infections reported daily in Metro Manila significantly went up during the months of July and August last year.
President Duterte maintained the GCQ status in Metro Manila for the month of March yesterday.
David backed Duterte’s decision, saying that it would be difficult to curb the surge of infection in the metropolis if restrictions further eased to less strict modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
“Right now we think that in hindsight, it’s a good decision that we did not downgrade yet to MGCQ in Metro Manila because of the surge in cases. And if we did downgrade to MGCQ, it would be harder for us to curb the spread of infections,” he said.
According to David, one of the possible reasons that led to the recent surge of infections in the metropolis is that people might have let their guard down after celebrating the holidays.
