ECQ fails to dampen COVID rise in ‘NCR Plus’

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

Despite the more stringent quarantine policies put in place over the National Capital Region (NCR) and neighboring provinces Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal, or collectively called “NCR plus”, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases continued to soar in these areas and nationwide in the past week.

The “NCR plus” area was initially placed under a “travel bubble” starting March 22, 2021 due to the growing number of COVID-19 cases in these places, which also exacerbated pandemic figures in the country.

The bubble was then elevated to Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) starting March 29, as case numbers still kept growing.

Originally slated to run only until yesterday, April 4, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque announced on Saturday that the ECQ would be extended by one more week, or up to April 11, upon recommendation by the national Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID).

But according to data by the Department of Health’s (DOH) online COVID-19 Tracker, the number of cases in the country, as well as in “NCR plus”, continued to rise despite the ECQ imposition.

COVID-19 Tracker data as of April 3, 2021 showed that nationally, a total of 784,043 cases were recorded (165,715 active cases, 604,905 recoveries, and 13,423 deaths).

The DOH on April 3 also confirmed 12,576 new cases, 599 new recoveries, and 103 new deaths in the country.

From the first day of the ECQ on March 29 until April 3, the country has listed a total of 52,149 new COVID-19 cases.

This means that the number of COVID-19 cases in the country rose to an average of 8,691.5 new cases per day.

This also meant a 71.25 percent increase in COVID figures between March 29 and April 3.

This already factors in the number of duplicate cases that were removed by the DOH in their final case count before coming up with their reports.

“NCR plus” recorded 9,136 new cases on April 3, which is 72.65 percent of all new cases reported on April 3.

The “bubble” area also reported a total of 33,179 new cases from March 29 to April 3, with an average of 5,529.83 new cases per day.

The bulk of these new cases come from NCR, which reported 24,253 new cases from March 29 to April 3, with a daily average of 4,042.17 new cases.

This is still even far from the average of Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal provinces, with a total of 6,335 new cases in the same period, or a daily average of 1,035.83 new cases.

The province of Bulacan, meanwhile, reported the lowest among these areas with only 2,591 within the same period, or a daily average of only 431 new cases.

The DOH’s tracker, however, warned that all of these numbers were not completely accurate, as these included cases that were belatedly reported by testing laboratories.