Duterte, IATF set to tackle quarantine classifications

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — President Duterte is expected to announce tomorrow the government’s decision on the quarantine status in different parts of the country for the month of November.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said yesterday that members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) are meeting with the President here this weekend to make an assessment.

“We still do not know what would be the final new classifications (for quarantine per area),” he said.

The National Capital Region (NCR or Metro Manila) remains under general community quarantine (GCQ), along with the province of Batangas and the cities of Tacloban, Bacolod, Iligan and Iloilo, until Oct. 31.

Only the province of Lanao del Sur and Marawi City are placed under the stricter modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) this month. The rest of the country enjoys the more relaxed quarantine status of modified GCQ.

The IATF is expected to tackle the various recommendations of the different localities in the country as the national tally of COVID-19 cases reached over 366,000 yesterday.

The Department of Health (DOH) said over 313,000 of this number are recoveries while 6,915 are deaths.

The President arrived here last week and is expected to stay until after All Souls’ and All Saints’ Days next week, during which he is reportedly set to visit the tombs of his parents at the Davao City Catholic Cemetery.