National Capital Region (NCR) mayors are hoping for the finalization of the new granular lockdown system in Metro Manila following its implementation postponement due to a delay in its guidelines.
San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora said in the Sept. 9 Laging Handa briefing that questions on the basis for imposing granular lockdown alert levels were raised during their recent meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).
Under the general community quarantine (GCQ) with granular lockdown classification, the operations of establishments will depend on the current alert level imposed on a certain local government unit.
Read more: Granular lockdown to have 4 levels
Department of Health (DOH) data on Monday (Sept. 6) showed that 16 NCR cities and municipalities are under Alert Level 4 amid high hospital occupancy rates, and only Manila is under Alert Level 3.
Alert level 4 is raised in areas under moderate to critical risk and has over 70% healthcare utilization, while alert level 3 covers areas with high and increasing cases with over 50% bed utilization.
Zamora said many patients admitted in NCR hospitals such as the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan, are not from the region. He said using the hospital address for patients from other areas has led to the inclusion of some areas under higher alert levels.
“That is the main issue. I’m hoping that the DOH will consider tagging these patients based on their real address, hindi po base sa address ng hospital para maging malinaw,” Zamora said.
“Kinakailangan ng isang objective and clear data kung ano ba talaga ang alert level ng San Juan, ng iba’t ibang LGU ng Metro Manila. Dapat ang bilangin lang is yung talagang residente namin,” he added.
The DOH has yet to respond to Zamora’s request.
Meanwhile, National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 spokesperson Restituto Padilla said the concern raised by the mayor may be considered in the guidelines.
“Maaaring maging bahagi ito ng guidelines lalo na kung nailabas ni Mayor Zamora ito sa meeting nila with MMDA [Metropolitan Manila Development Authority] at ang Technical Working Group na siyang gumagawa ng guidelines,” Padilla said in a text message.
Zamora assured that NCR mayors are just waiting for the guidelines and were ready to implement the new system even if it was rolled out on Sept. 8 as initially scheduled. – Report from Bea Bernardo/AG-rir
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