{"id":264723,"date":"2020-08-10T05:43:39","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T09:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=264723"},"modified":"2020-08-10T05:43:39","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T09:43:39","slug":"palace-says-up-to-iatf-to-decide-on-calls-to-extend-mecq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/10\/palace-says-up-to-iatf-to-decide-on-calls-to-extend-mecq\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace says up to IATF to decide on calls to extend 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 The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) will decide on calls to extend the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) up to a whole month, Malaca\u00f1ang said Monday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this remark after former National Task Force Against Covid-19 special adviser Dr. Tony Leachon said an extended MECQ is necessary to flatten the country\u2019s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) epidemic curve.<\/p>\n

Leachon said a month-long MECQ would also allow the country to bridge its healthcare gap.<\/p>\n

Roque, however, reiterated that the IATF-EID will have to consider not only people\u2019s health, but also the economy which officially entered a recession with a 16.5 percent economic plunge in the second quarter this year due to lockdowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt entails a delicate balancing of protecting and saving people’s health to protecting and saving the economic health of the nation,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

He recognized that the effects of the MECQ in Metro Manila and nearby provinces would be felt two to three weeks after its enforcement.<\/p>\n

Since the incubation period for Covid-19 is 14 days, Roque said it is best to wait for that time to ascertain the health impact of the MECQ classification.<\/p>\n

President Rodrigo Duterte on Aug. 2 approved the recommendation to revert Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and Bulacan to stricter MECQ from Aug. 4 to 18 after medical front-liners called for a timeout to allow the government to recalibrate its Covid-19 response efforts.<\/p>\n

Last week, Roque said the Philippine economy will not be able to withstand the impact of a longer MECQ in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.<\/p>\n

\u201cTatapatin ko po kayo, hindi na po kaya ng ekonomiya ang mas matagalan pang lockdown (I will be blunt, the economy cannot withstand a longer lockdown),\u201d he said in a virtual Palace briefing on August 4.<\/p>\n

While an ECQ might be the most ideal solution to mitigate the risk of spreading Covid-19, Roque said the national government is still looking for where to source funds for another tranche of cash assistance for low-income families.<\/p>\n

Health Undersecretary and spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire, in the same press briefing, said the MECQ did not aim to flatten the curve, but allow the healthcare system to take a “breather.”<\/p>\n

University of the Philippines Political Science Prof. Ranjit Rye earlier said Covid-19 infections are projected to rise to 220,000 this month if Metro Manila remains under general community quarantine (GCQ).<\/p>\n

However, he said cases may be fewer by 50,000 to 70,000 if Metro Manila is under MECQ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) will decide on calls to extend the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":263801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264723","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264724,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264723\/revisions\/264724"}],"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=264723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}