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Metro Manila Mayors ready to implement granular lockdowns in their respective areas as COVID-19 cases continue to spike in the National Capital Region.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Benjamin Abalos said the reproduction rate (R) in Metro Manila was at 1.46 as of Friday and there are atleast 3,700 households under lockdowns.

“We hope the reproduction rate will decrease, para hindi ganoon kadami ang kaso. But as it is right now, the mayors are preparing for granular lockdowns in areas deemed contagious and infectious,” Abalos said.

A granular lockdown is a strict quarantine limited to streets or barangays, and is aimed to contain a clustering of infections.

Earlier, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said this week that the country could carry out granular lockdowns, but the proposal has yet to be approved by President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Ang mangayayari dito sa shift of policy . . . Hindi na magkakaroon ng malawakang mga lockdown kung hindi granular lockdown,” Año said.

The Department of Health (DOH) said nearly half of Metro Manila’s hospitals were on high risk as they continued to be overwhelmed with virus admissions.

Only 6 cities in Metro Manila have at least a 60-percent ICU bed utilization rate in their hospitals. Hospitals throughout the rest of the region, meanwhile, were at over 70-percent capacity, according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.

The One Hospital Command Center has been swamped with calls — at least 500 daily — Vergeire said.

On the other hand, Abalos appealed to mild COVID-19 positive residents to go to a local government triage, instead of hospitals, so that medical facilities could treat severe virus patients.

Based on the health department’s data as of Friday, the NCR counted the most number of new infections in the past 14 days with 48,469 new cases.

Calabarzon followed with 37,940 fresh infections in the past 2 weeks.