{"id":272310,"date":"2020-10-19T08:01:59","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T12:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=272310"},"modified":"2020-10-19T08:01:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T12:01:59","slug":"gcq-until-year-end-still-subject-to-iatf-approval-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/19\/gcq-until-year-end-still-subject-to-iatf-approval-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"GCQ until year-end still subject to IATF approval: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
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)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Even if Metro Manila mayors want to keep the region under general community quarantine (GCQ) for the rest of the year, Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday said a shift to a less stringent modified enhanced community quarantine (MGCQ) is still possible with a decrease in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.<\/p>\n

In a Palace press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque acknowledged that Metro Manila mayors have agreed to a continued GCQ instead of recommending a downgrade to MGCQ.<\/p>\n

Interior Secretary Eduardo A\u00f1o also agreed with the mayors’ decision, stressing that further relaxing quarantine restrictions in the metropolis may lead to a spike in Covid-19 cases.<\/p>\n

However, Roque noted that the recommendation to remain under GCQ until the end of the year is still subject to the approval of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u00a0iyan po ang parang nabubuong<\/em>\u00a0consensus\u00a0pero siyempre po hindi ko pupuwedeng pangunahan \u2018no<\/em>\u00a0(that seems to be the consensus, but I can\u2019t preempt it) because it is a collegial decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said more industries have been allowed to resume operations, as long as health and safety protocols are observed.<\/p>\n

According to Roque, downgrading to MGCQ will only be possible if Covid-19 infections continue to lower.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng sinabi ko naman po pupuwede kung patuloy na bumaba ang numero \u2018no. Bumababa po talaga ang numero \u2018no pero<\/em>\u00a0monthly\u00a0naman po ang ating desisyon so hindi pa naman tapos ang Oktubre<\/em>\u00a0(What I said is that it\u2019s possible if numbers continue to decrease. Numbers are really decreasing but we make decisions monthly and October hasn\u2019t ended yet),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also admitted that the IATF is hesitant about further relaxing quarantine restrictions as it may result in the public being too relaxed over the prevailing Covid-19 threat.<\/p>\n

Luckily, he said the public continues to follow health and safety quarantine protocols such as wearing face masks and face shields, frequent handwashing, and physical distancing.<\/p>\n

As of Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) logged 2,638 new Covid-19 cases, pushing the national case tally to 359,169.<\/p>\n

Recoveries increased to 310,303 with 226 more patients cleared of the infection, while the death toll hit 6,675, with 26 new deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Even if Metro Manila mayors want to keep the region under general community quarantine (GCQ) for the rest of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":265260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272310","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\/272310","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=272310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272311,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272310\/revisions\/272311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}