Duterte keeps Metro Manila under GCQ for another month

FILE: A police officer checks the documents presented by the motorcycle-riding couple entering San Mateo town at a quarantine checkpoint along Batasan-San Mateo Road in Rizal province on Thursday (August 13, 2020). (PNA photo by Joseph O. Razon)

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to keep Metro Manila under general community quarantine (GCQ) for another month.

During a televised IATF-EID meeting with Duterte in Malacañang on Monday night, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the National Capital Region (NCR), as well as the province of Batangas and the cities of Tacloban, Bacolod, Iligan, and Iloilo, will be under GCQ from October 1 to 31.

Duque also announced that Lanao del Sur, including Marawi City, will remain under modified enhanced community quarantine to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

“The rest of the country will be under modified general community quarantine,” Duterte said after Duque’s report.

Health authorities on Monday reported 3,073 new Covid-19 infections, increasing the country’s tally to 307,288.

According to the Department of Health, the majority of the newly announced cases are from the NCR with 1,158, the provinces of Cavite with 225; Laguna, 203; Rizal, 173; and Batangas with 169 infections.

The DOH also reported 163 new recoveries, pushing the total number of recoveries to 252,665 and 37 deaths, bringing the death toll at 5,381.