MANILA - The Metro Manila Council is set to meet Sunday to discuss its recommendation to the government's COVID-19 task force on the possible quarantine classification of the capital region for May, its chairman said Friday.

"Itong pagpupulong na ito ay base rito 'yong ating magiging recommendation sa darating na katapusan," Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez told Teleradyo.

(This meeting will be for our recommendation [on quarantine status] after the end of this month.)

Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal are under modified enhanced community quarantine -- the second toughest lockdown level -- until April 30.

Olivarez said they would meet with health experts to assess the COVID-19 situation in every local government units.

"Kailangan consolidated ang ating data. Hindi lang partikular na isang siyudad lang, kundi itong 16 na siyudad at 1 munisipyo all over the National Capital Region," he said.

(The data must be consolidated. It should not be only 1 city, but all 16 cities and 1 municipality all over the National Capital Region.)

In Parañaque City, Olivarez deemed the situation to be improving.

"Halos nagpa-plateau kami nitong 1 to 2 weeks. Gumaganda 'yong ating number dito at mas marami 'yong recovery. Hopefully magtuloy-tuloy ang pagbaba ng ating COVID," he said.

(We are almost plateauing in the past or 2 weeks. Our numbers are improving and many have recovered. Hopefully it will continue to go down.)

In the interview, Olivarez bared they had been allowed to use antigen tests for quick testing and tracing of COVID-19 cases.

"Ang maganda dito sa antigen ay immediatley malalaman natin 'yong resulta at puwede nating ma-isolate kaagad ang mga suspect at probable patients," he said.

(The good thing about antigen is we will know the results immediately and we can quickly isolate suspect and probable patients.)

The gold standard for COVID-19 testing is still polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. Antigen tests are said to be less accurate but are more useful at checking for current infection than rapid antibody tests. Antigen tests are also cheaper and quicker to use than PCR tests.

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