MANILA (UPDATE) - Metro Manila mayors have agreed to keep the capital region under general community quarantine (GCQ) but open up more businesses and seating capacity, their representative said Monday.

Meeting centers, conferences, and exhibits will be allowed at a "limited capacity," said Parañaque mayor Edwin Olivarez, who serves as Metro Manila council chairman.

Outdoor amusement attractions will also be allowed while the region's 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew will remain, he added.

"Ang recommendation ng Metro Manila Council ay GCQ pa rin po tayo pero may kaunting pagbubukas ng kaunting negosyo," he told ABS-CBN's Teleradyo.

"'Di po tayo pwede magrelax. Alam po nating bumababa ang cases at utilization ng healthcare pero di po tayo kailangan magrelax para totally ma-contain ang COVID na ito," he added when asked why the council chose to keep the region's curfew.

(The Metro Manila Council has recommended for the region to remain under GCQ with a little more opening of businesses. We can't relax yet. Although we know cases and health care utilization is decreasing, we can't relax in order to totally contain COVID-19.)

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv

The country's largest COVID-19 referral hospital agrees with the mayors' decision to retain GCQ over Metro Manila despite the decline in virus cases, said Philippine General Hospital spokesman Dr. Jonas del Rosario.

Some 103 patients occupy 250 beds in the hospital's COVID-19 ward, he said.

"Last 2 weeks, steady yung pagbaba, at one time nag-less than 100 na kami...We’re seeing less and less patients going into our emergency rooms with COVID at wala na rin po kaming waiting list (and we no longer have a waitlist)," he said.

(The decline in our virus cases in the last 2 weeks was steady. At one time we had less than 100 COVID-19 patients.)

"Sana i-retain ang GCQ. Siguro ibaba nang kaunti dahil tama naman na bumaba ang bilang 'pag nakita mo ang nangyayari sa mga probinsiya, nandun naman ngayon ang surge. Ang ibig sabihin nito kailangan natin mag-ingat, di porket bumaba na bigla tayong makakalimot."

(We hope GCQ will be retained. It may be eased a bit because cases have decreased but as you can see, the surge is now in the provinces. We need to be vigilant. Just because cases declined does not mean we should forget to be careful.)

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv

Metro Manila, home to a tenth of the Philippines' 100 million people, is also considering region-wide incentives for the fully-vaccinated, Olivarez said.

"Ang ibang LGU (local government unit) nagumpisa nang magparaffle para ma-encourage...Pinaguusapan po para uniform ang policy," he said.

(Some LGUs have conducted raffles to encourage residents to get vaccinated...We're discussing this to have a uniform policy.)

• House and lot, iba pa ipapa-raffle sa mga magpapabakuna sa Las Piñas
• Ilang tindahan, restoran magbibigay ng 'vaccine discount,' incentives simula Hunyo 1

The Philippines aims to inoculate 500,000 daily in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, and 6 other urban areas to reach herd immunity by November, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez earlier said.

Some 5 million Filipinos have received their first COVID-19 jab while 1,189,353 have been fully vaccinated, Galvez added.

• PH breaches 5 million mark of administered COVID-19 vaccine doses