By Celerina Monte

The National Capital Region and four nearby provinces or NCR Plus bubble may shift to general community quarantine after May 14 as cases of coronavirus disease and hospital care utilization rate have been decreasing but travel ban against foreigners will remain, Malacanang said on Monday.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the final decision will be made by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases on whether Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal will move from current modified enhanced community quarantine to GCQ.

"I will not second guess the IATF but pursuant to the formula, it is possible. Again, the final decision rests with the IATF," said Roque, also the spokesman of IATF, in a televised press briefing.

He noted that based on the Department of Health data, as of May 9, hospital care utilization rate in Metro Manila was not in the critical level.

In particular, Roque said the Intensive Care Unite utilization rate was at 68 percent; isolation beds, 46 percent; ward beds, 51 percent; and ventilators, 51 percent.

The IATF has yet to meet and to submit its recommendation to President Rodrigo Duterte on the new quarantine classification for NCR Plus, which is currently under MECQ until May 14.

Asked of the possibility of further extending the ban for inbound travelers, Roque said, "As far as our borders are concerned, I think worldwide, the tendency or phenomena is to continue with the travel ban because of the double variants coming from India."

He said foreign tourists will still not be allowed to enter and those who will be accepted only are the ones covered by previous IATF resolutions, such as investors with existing valid visas.

The OCTA Research group has recommended to extend the MECQ in NCR Plus by another week or two to fully achieve the downward trend on COVID-19 cases.

Roque said the Palace respects the recommendation of OCTA as the latter has also been using the data from the government.

But he said the IATF and the DOH have their panel of experts who have been making the recommendation.

"So even the economists of NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) are being listened to because they are the ones making the cost benefit analysis. In the end many may die of hunger or many may suffer because of hunger if the lockdown is further prolonged," he said.

MECQ is the second most stringent quarantine classification, next to ECQ.

As of May 10, the DOH reported 6,846 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the active cases to 59,897 or 5.4 percent of the total 1,030,367 cases since February last year.

Meanwhile, Duterte is set to deliver his regular "Talk to the People" on Monday night in Davao City. Celerina Monte/DMS