By ELLALYN V. RUIZ
The OCTA Research Team has renewed its call to the government to impose a two-week Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) as Metro Manila’s COVID-19 reproduction number only dropped minimally despite the implementation of the National Capital Region Plus Bubble or NCR+.
OCTA Research fellow Dr. Butch Ong said Metro Manila’s reproduction number is currently at 1.94 from 2.04, dropping only by 0.1.
“So we will still stand by the 11,000 (daily new cases) projection (by the end of March). But we hope to beat it. Pero ‘yung (but the) 11,000 by the end of the month looks like a very, very close figure based on our current R (reproduction) number,” Ong said during the “Laging Handa” public briefing.
“Yung pinag-aaralan talaga namin sa OCTA for the last several days already ‘yung datos. (We in OCTA have been studying the data for the last several days),” he said.
Ong said that if localized lockdown or the NCR Plus bubble is maintained, the reduction of COVID-19 reproduction number will remain very slow.
“We might see an improvement (in reproduction number) in about 10 weeks and that’s too long for our healthcare workers or healthcare system,” he said.
“Baka ngayon siguro baka puwede natin i-consider ang stricter community restrictions like an MECQ (modified enhanced community quarantine) for two weeks. (Maybe now we can consider stricter community restrictions like an MECQ for two weeks,” he added.
Ong said hospital capacity “has already been challenged” and will only take two more weeks before it could reach full capacity.
He said one of the best solutions to prevent hospitals from bursting at the seams is to impose tighter restrictions on community mobility.
“So ‘yung ating (if our) NCR Plus GCQ bubble if you maintain it, it could take longer for us to see a sudden decrease. Perhaps now we should consider a tighter restriction,” Ong said.
