{"id":263488,"date":"2020-07-30T06:09:54","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T10:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=263488"},"modified":"2020-07-30T06:09:54","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T10:09:54","slug":"govt-to-take-new-covid-19-initiatives-in-metro-manila-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/30\/govt-to-take-new-covid-19-initiatives-in-metro-manila-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov\u2019t to take \u2018new\u2019 Covid-19 initiatives in Metro Manila: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Store owners occupy the sidewalk for their merchandise prompting passers-by to walk on the road along Barangay 176, Bagong Silang-Kanan, Caloocan City on Thursday (July 30, 2020). (PNA photo by Ben Briones)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The government will take \u201cnew\u201d initiatives to help Metro Manila combat the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), Malaca\u00f1ang said Thursday.<\/p>\n

This, after Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque was criticized when he said on Wednesday that Metro Manila would be a \u201cliving experiment\u201d in the country\u2019s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

In a virtual press conference aired on state-run PTV-4, Roque said his statement was misunderstood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u00a0siguro po, hindi niyo lang naintindihan pero meron po tayong mga bagong<\/em>\u00a0initiatives\u00a0na sisimulan<\/em>\u00a0(Perhaps, you have misunderstood but [what I meant was] we will take new initiatives),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Amid the spike in Covid-19 cases in Metro Manila, Roque told CNN Philippines on Wednesday that the country\u2019s metropolis would be a \u201cliving experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

He failed to provide details about the supposed experiment but said it would be \u201csuccessful.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his latest statement, Roque acknowledged that he should not have used the term \u201cexperiment\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi naman po talaga siya<\/em>\u00a0completely experiment.\u00a0Siguro po ang tamang salita diyan ay<\/em>\u00a0\u2018pilot\u2019\u00a0at saka<\/em>\u00a0\u2018modeling.\u2019 So\u00a0siguro po, hindi nga tama yung<\/em>\u00a0word\u00a0na<\/em>\u00a0experiment (It\u2019s not completely an experiment. Perhaps, the right words are \u2018pilot\u2019 and \u2018modeling.\u2019 So perhaps, the word \u2018experiment\u2019 was not right),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque explained that one of the new initiatives to be applied in Metro Manila is the use of pool testing to boost the Covid-19 testing capacity in the country\u2019s metropolis.<\/p>\n

He said pool testing, which makes use of one reverse transcription – polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test kit for at least 10 persons, would expand the actual testing to \u201c10 times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The average cost of one RT-PCR test kit is PHP3,000 but 10 persons can split the bill and pay just PHP300 each.<\/p>\n

\u201cPagdating po doon sa<\/em>\u00a0experiment,\u00a0ang dapat po siguro, ipa<\/em>-pilot\u00a0na natin yung tinatawag nating<\/em>\u00a0pool testing\u00a0na talagang<\/em>\u00a0would (When it comes to the experiment, we have to conduct the pilot study for pool testing that would really) increase by 10 times our actual testing capacity,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

As of Thursday, Metro Manila has logged 46,687 Covid-19 infections, based on the Covid-19 tracker uploaded on the website of the Department of Health.<\/p>\n

There are still 31,275 active Covid-19 cases in Metro Manila, the tracker bared.<\/p>\n

About 14,406 Covid-19 patients in the area have already recovered, while some 1,005 infected individuals have succumbed to the disease.<\/p>\n

President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to announce the new quarantine classifications in the country on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Malaca\u00f1ang earlier raised the possibility that Metro Manila, which is currently under general community quarantine, might be placed anew under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), which is second to the most stringent community quarantine imposed by the government.<\/p>\n

Roque, however, declined to confirm whether the quarantine status in Metro Manila would revert to MECQ after July 31.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not preempt the President.\u00a0Pero gaya nang sinabi ko<\/em>\u00a0(But as I said), it will not be business as usual,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The government will take \u201cnew\u201d initiatives to help Metro Manila combat the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), Malaca\u00f1ang said Thursday. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":263489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263490,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263488\/revisions\/263490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}