{"id":263800,"date":"2020-08-02T21:38:33","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T01:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=263800"},"modified":"2020-08-02T21:38:33","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T01:38:33","slug":"prrd-heeds-front-liners-call-reverts-ncr-other-areas-to-mecq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/02\/prrd-heeds-front-liners-call-reverts-ncr-other-areas-to-mecq\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD heeds front-liners\u2019 call; reverts NCR, other areas to MECQ"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte talks to the people after holding a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on August 2, 2020. KING RODRIGUEZ\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has reverted Metro Manila to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from Aug. 4 to 18 as coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in the country exceeded 100,000.<\/p>\n

In a late-night public address on Sunday, Duterte approved the recommendation of his Cabinet to return to a more stringent quarantine status in response to medical front-liners\u2019 call for a \u201ctimeout\u201d to prevent the collapse of the country’s healthcare system amid the prevailing health crisis.<\/p>\n

A least 80 medical associations representing thousands of doctors signed a letter asking the government to revert Manila to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).<\/p>\n

Duterte, however, approved his Cabinet\u2019s recommendation to revert to MECQ, the second most stringent quarantine classification.<\/p>\n

Aside from Metro Manila, the provinces of Laguna, Rizal, Cavite and Bulacan will also revert to MECQ.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have heard the call of different groups from the medical community for a two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Mega Manila. I fully understand why you, health workers, would like to ask for such a timeout. They have been in the frontlines for months and they are exhausted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He appealed to healthcare workers to \u201cstretch\u201d their patience and fervor by treating Covid-19 patients, assuring them that he recognizes their efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Wag kayo mawalan ng pag-asa, nakikita at kausap ko ang iba sainyo<\/em>\u00a0(Don\u2019t lose hope, I can see you and I speak to some of you) Stretch your patience and your fervor.\u00a0Tiwala kami sa inyong kakayahan<\/em>\u00a0(we trust your abilities),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the imposition of a stricter quarantine classification is among the Cabinet\u2019s seven-point recommendation to address the concerns of healthcare workers.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque confirmed that this seven-point recommendation was approved by the President.<\/p>\n

Apart from a more stringent quarantine status, Roque said the President also approved the recommendation to hire additional healthcare workers to augment the current workforce.<\/p>\n

This will include the hiring of 10,000 medical professionals and the calling to active duty and enlistment to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), he said.<\/p>\n

Roque said healthcare workers would also be provided with additional benefits, such as risk allowance for private sector healthcare workers treating Covid-19 patients, the amount of PHP10,000 to 15,000 for every healthcare worker that gets sick, life insurance, free accommodation, free transportation, free and frequent testing.<\/p>\n

The recommendation to issue work and quarantine passes to minimize movement was also approved, he added.<\/p>\n

He said Duterte approved the recommendation to direct local government units (LGUs) and the Covid-19 CODE teams to intensify the localized lockdown strategy and the implementation of Oplan Kalinga.<\/p>\n

The recommendation to strictly enforce guidelines for minimum health standards while giving 20 million face masks for the poor has also been approved, he added.<\/p>\n

He said Duterte also approved the use of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing as the gold standard in Covid-19 tests.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday, Duterte retained the GCQ classification in Metro Manila despite repeated warnings that it could revert to MECQ if the situation worsens.<\/p>\n

On Sunday (August 2), health authorities reported 5,032 additional Covid-19 infections, its largest single-day increase on record, pushing the total tally to 103,185.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has reverted Metro Manila to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from Aug. 4 to 18 as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":263801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263800","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=263800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263802,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263800\/revisions\/263802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}