President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night raised the possibility of a return to stricter COVID protocols after authorities confirmed local cases of the highly contagious coronavirus Delta variant.
There might be a need to reimpose stricter restrictions, Duterte said noting that the 16 local cases of the Delta variant last week is a "call for serious alarm and concern."
"We may need to reimpose stricter restrictions to avoid mass gathering and prevent superspreader events," he said in his weekly public address.
"Pagka nandito na kung sakali man it will spread, I hope it will not, then we’ll have to go again to stricter measures," he said.
The more transmissible Delta variant is sweeping across Southeast Asia and has prompted lockdowns in Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. After battling a surge in late March this year, the Philippines started to ease restrictions in June, allowing leisure travel and children to go outdoors.
Duterte ordered the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the Philippine National Police to strictly implement existing COVID-19 protocols to fight the threat of another surge.
"I urge the DILG and the PNP to implement the existing protocols with greater urgency and necessity. It is only by imposing these restrictions that we can fight the threat of Delta variant," he said.
The Philippines is in a race to vaccinate at least half of its 109 million population this year as the threat of the Delta variant looms. The country aims to inoculate at least 50 million of its people to achieve the government's target of "population protection" by November.
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