Malacanang on Tuesday said there is still no reason to implement another enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) as health care capacity in the country is still sufficient to manage severe COVID-19 patients.

In a virtual press briefing, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the government has more knowledge on how to combat the COVID-19 compared to last year when it implemented a lockdown in entire Luzon.

“We’ve found out that we can just implement a granular lockdown so those who are saying that we need a lockdown the truth is we have granular or localized lockdowns… We are still using this as an instrument to slow down the transmission of virus but only in areas where there are a high number of cases,” Roque said.

“But right now, there is no need to declare an ECQ the same as the one we declared last year because our hospitals are not yet overwhelmed,” he added.

Roque said the health capacity of the country is not yet on a critical level.

“We can still manage to cure our severe patients,” he said.

Asked on the 11,000 COVID-19 cases prediction of OCTA Research, Roque said with the strategy of the IATF they are sure that the number of cases will go down.

He said people should continue following the minimum health standards, establishments must improve their ventilation and bed capacity; and local government units must continue implementing the Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE).

“During last year, we found out the importance of taking care of ourselves for our livelihood. It will be hard for us to close our economy again,” Roque said.

As to the request of doctors and experts of a two-week timeout, National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr said local government units are doing their best to contain the virus through localized lockdowns.

“We are confident in the leadership of MMDA (Metropolitan Manila Development Authority),” Galvez said. Ella Dionisio/DMS