Medical groups welcome MECQ

August 3, 2020

Medical societies Monday welcomed the decision of President Duterte to place the National Capital Region (NCR), Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and Bulacan starting Tuesday until August 18 under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

In an interview, Health Professionals Alliance Against COVID-19 co-convenor Maricar Limpin said they are amenable with the decision of Duterte as this is better than the current general community quarantine (GCQ).

"What we want is to primarily tighten the community quarantine," said Limpin.

"While it is only MECQ, we are still happy with it. It is a lot better than GCQ," she said.

On Saturday, medical organizations urged Duterte to place NCR under ECQ for at least two weeks to allow the healthcare system to recuperate.  COVID-19 cases neared 100,000 on that day and breached that number on Sunday before Duterte held a Cabinet meeting.

Limpin said MECQ will not be enough to"flatten the curve" of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We know it's not going to make a dent, if ever, in the rise of infection. It will be impossible to attain that in two weeks time," she said.

What they are looking forward to, said Limpin, the Philippine College of Physicians vice president, is for the government and healthcare sector to hit the reset button on how to defeat COVID-19.

"Maybe we can think of a more comprehensive strategy, particularly contact tracing, case finding, addressing the problem of frontliners in terms of deficiencies of health workforce, as well as the proper implementation of safety precautions," said Limpin. DMS