By Robina Asido

President Rodrigo Duterte is set to announce the new quarantine classification in the country by Friday, Presidential Spokesman Sec. Harry Roque said on Thursday.

"There’s a tentative Talk to the People on Friday, I think we expect the President to announce it unless he will give authorization to have it announced earlier because the quarantine classification for Metro Manila will end on the 20th or tomorrow," Roque said.

Roque said the new quarantine classification in Metro Manila and other parts of the country will be discussed today by the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) for the management of emerging infectious diseases.

"Well, the quarantine classification will be discussed by the IATF this afternoon and the President will also have a tentative Talk to the People on Friday , but that is still tentative," he said.

Roque said during the meeting the IATF is expected to decide whether to extend the ECQ or declare a much relaxed quarantine classification or the MECQ.

"There are only two options, whether to continue to ECQ in which case the question is if we still have money to provide cash assistance or to bring it down to MECQ," he said.

"There are only two options, but what I want to say to our people, it is our third ECQ and we see that after the ECQ the numbers do not immediately went down. maybe it will take one more week to bring down the numbers because the cycle or the spread of the virus takes 14 days," he added. DMS