MANILA - The COVID-19 surge foreseen in Metro Manila amid the detection in the country of the Delta variant is still reversible, independent research group OCTA said Sunday.

The group had earlier said Metro Manila was already in the early stage of another coronavirus surge most likely due to the Delta variant.

• OCTA: NCR seeing 'early stages' of COVID-19 surge that may be driven by Delta variant

"This is a cause for concern, pero di pa naman ito (but it's not) irreversible. There is still a window for us to have intervention and slow down this increase in cases," Professor Guido David told ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo.

"'Pag di natin matutukan ito (If we don't focus on this), this could escalate to more cases than or a similar surge to what we saw in March, April."

• Philippines under 'second wave' of COVID-19 - expert

In the capital region, Valenzuela City at 1.61 has the highest reproduction number, or the number of people infected by a virus patient. It is followed by Manila at 1.43, David said.

Metro Manila's placement under general community quarantine with heightened restrictions and the prohibition of children aged 5 and above from going outdoors would help in controlling the surge, he said.

• Metro Manila, 4 provinces under 'GCQ with heightened restrictions' to curb COVID-19 Delta's spread

Curfew, border control, and fully-vaccinated individuals may also mitigate the surge, David said. Some 20 percent of the capital region's population have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, he noted.

"So yung position ng iba, maybe we can have more strict restrictions para mapigilan na natin ito at the outset pa lang, and we can have a merry Christmas kasi yung vaccinations natin, we’re continuing to roll out," he said.

(Others' position is maybe we can have more strict restrictions so we can prevent this at the outset and we can have a merry Christmas because our vaccination rollout continues.)

"If we can beat the Delta variant, it would be a big victory for us. Parang Olympic victory din 'yun (It would be like an Olympic victory)."

• Delta variant highly potent but can be beaten: IATF expert

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The Philippines aims to inoculate 58 million residents of Metro Manila and key economic hubs by end of this year to achieve population protection.

Some 5,560,029 individuals are fully-vaccinated against COVID-19 as government has administered a total of 16,426,267 jabs.