MANILA - Granular lockdowns must be accompanied with immediate detection of active cases, effective contact tracing and intensified vaccination, the UP Pandemic Response Team said Tuesday.

Metro Manila will ease into general community quarantine (GCQ), the Philippines' second-loosest lockdown level, from Sep. 8 until the end of the month even as COVID-19 cases rise.

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"Granular lockdown will be successful if still nandyan yung maayos, mabilis na detection...Kung meron tayong testing, contact tracing, and also mapalawak natin ang vaccination sa mga lugar na matataas ang kaso, baka makatulong itong sama-samang strategies para mapababa ang mga kaso ng COVID-19," Prof. Jomar Rabajante told ABS-CBN's Teleradyo.

(Granular lockdown will be successful if well-organized, immediate detection is there...If we have testing, contact tracing, and an expansion of vaccination in areas with high cases, maybe these all togetehr can help in decreasing COVID-10 cases.)

"Lockdown in itself is just para pabagalin but not really yun lang ang magiging strategy dapat."

(Lockdown in itself is just to slow down the transmission, it shouldn't be the only strategy.)

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COVID-19 infections continued to rise even after the capital region was placed under strict lockdown as the Delta variant is highly transmissible and the public's mobility was unhampered, Rabajante said.

There is still a "huge chance" that cases will increase as the country tallied a 28 percent positivity rate on Monday, he added.

The Philippines on Monday tallied a record-high 22,415 COVID-19 cases, bringing its total to 2,103,331 infections.

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