(BusinessWorld) A GROUP of researchers from the country’s premier university on Sunday backed a plan to ease the lockdown in Metro Manila as coronavirus infections continue to fall.

“We support that because the situation in the National Capital Region is improving,” Guido David, a research fellow at the OCTA Research Group, told ABS-CBN News TeleRadyo in Filipino. “We can take some risks in opening up businesses.”

The presidential palace earlier said the capital region and nearby provinces including Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal could be placed under a looser general community quarantine this week.

The share of daily coronavirus cases in Metro Manila have gone down to 27% of the national tally from 94% during the peak on March 29 to April 4, Mr. David said.

The virus reproduction rate — the number of people infected by a virus patient — in Metro Manila stood at 0.72, while the infection rate was down to 8%, he added.

Metro Manila and nearby provinces will be under a general quarantine, with additional restrictions until June 15.

Mr. David said Davao City had been logging the highest daily tally though it is on a downtrend.

He said the government should consider easing the lockdown in more areas as more people get vaccinated against the coronavirus, he added. More foreign tourists who have been vaccinated might be allowed to get in.

Vaccine czar Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. earlier said the government seeks to vaccinate half-a-million Filipinos daily in Metro Manila and eight other key economic hubs to protect the population by Nov. 27.

About 6.31 million Filipinos have been vaccinated as of June 8, about 1.7 million of whom had taken their second shot.

The Department of Health (DoH) reported 7,302 coronavirus infections on Sunday, bringing the total to 1.32 million.