MANILA — The coronavirus spread in the Philippine capital has reached a "plateau", Mayor Isko Moreno said Friday, nearly a month into the relaxed pandemic lockdown of Metro Manila.

"For the past 3 weeks starting GCQ (general community quarantine), nag-plateau po ang COVID presence sa Maynila. Hindi siya lumalaki, hindi siya bumababa — nami-maintain ang numbers," Moreno said.

(For the past 3 weeks starting GCQ, the COVID presence in Manila plateaued. It's has not gotten bigger, it did not go down either. The numbers were just maintained.)

"Pero sana 'wag ma-relax iyong mga taga-Maynilang nakikinig," he told ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo.

(However, I hope that Manila residents listening will not relax.)

Manila as of Thursday has the third highest COVID-19 tally in the country at 2,073 cases, next to Cebu City and Metro Manila. Out of this figure, 287 were "new cases" which meant the onset of illness or the patient's specimen was collected in the 14 days, according to the health department's website.

Manila, which previously required the help of private hospitals to screen potential COVID-19 patients, opened Thursday its own testing laboratory at the Sta. Ana Hospital, said Moreno.

TeleRadyo, June 26, 2020