Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the National Capital Region have been declining after a period of plateau, but it is still too early to ease quarantine .

'Even though it is already going down, we cannot say yet that it will already go away. Personally, I think we are not out of the woods yet," Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega told dzBB on Sunday.

"There is the variant of concern called the Delta variant. Although we don't have it on the local setting, we are closely monitoring it," he said.

Seventeen cases of the Delta variant, said to have triggered a surge of COVID-19 cases in India, have been detected in the Philippines. One person was reported to have died while the rest have been released after completing their quarantine period.

OCTA Reasearch Fellow Guido David told dzBB in a separate interview that daily COVID-19 cases have been averaging 650, which is still below the pre-surge levels of 500.

David said it would be better to keep National Capital Region on general community quarantine with some restrictions because not all have been vaccinated.

The government is due to announce new quarantine classifications in June 30. DMS