The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) sees an “opening” for placing Metro Manila under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), NEDA Chief and Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Karl Chua said Wednesday (June 23).
Chua was optimistic about the possible relaxation of the quarantine level in the region, in line with the continuous decline of COVID-19 cases and the increase in the number of vaccine recipients.
“I think in NCR, we have an opening, given the number of cases that we have been seeing. But we will still have to be very careful because of the new variants,” he said.
Chua believes that Metro Manila must be placed under MGCQ “at the appropriate time” to further open the economy.
He also reported that despite the creation of 700,000 jobs amid the pandemic, they are still worried about the quality of the work due to lower wages and shortened working hours.
He also warned the public to take precautionary measures as the economy gradually reopens, due to the threat of the Delta COVID-19 variant that was first discovered in India and is said to be more contagious than other variants.
(PTV News)/NGS- jlo
