Palace officials said although the National Capital Region (NCR) remains in Alert Level 3, many people are choosing to stay at home to avoid being infected with COVID-19.

"We see in Metro Manila that most of our people are staying at home or working on an alternative arrangement, it means they are afraid and worried, they do not want to get infected with COVID, and it definitely help bring down the number of cases or at the very least to prevent further spike of COVID-19 cases," Acting Presidential Spokesman Karlo Nograles said during an radio interview on Saturday.

Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Benhur Abalos added there is no need to expand implementation of curfew as most people in NCR are staying inside their residence.

"We see in the picture that at around 8 pm the restaurants in malls are already closed. The number of people in the streets are lessened. We should remember that the purpose of the alert level is to control mobility," he said during the ''Laging Handa'' virtual public briefing on Saturday.

"In our last meeting, because we saw that the number of people in the streets were lessened, where almost no one is outside at around 8 or 9 pm, we think for the meantime there’s no need for a curfew," he said.

"In a way our people after all of these variants, UK variant, Delta variant, African variant, now Omicron maybe on our own as a people, we learned when to self-regulate there is no need to remind them not to go out. On their own, our people really stay at their houses because they know how transmissible this virus is," he added. Robina Asido/DMS