PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte strongly hinted at the possibility of re-imposing stringent lockdowns after a highly transmissible Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to wreak havoc on many countries such as Indonesia.
Indonesia is now considered the new epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia after it recorded more than 54,000 COVID-19 infections last week.
According to the President, he is bothered by recent developments, which tend to show the Delta variant managing to sneak into the country via returning Filipino workers.
“We may need to reimpose stricter restrictions to avoid mass gathering and prevent super-spreader events… I urge the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) and the PNP (Philippine National Police) to implement the existing protocols with greater urgency and necessity. It is only by imposing these restrictions that we can fight the threat of the Delta variant,” Duterte said.
He, however. remains confident that the prevailing government measures in place would somehow be enough to keep the mutated strain, deemed as 60 percent more infectious than its original form, from spreading.
But as a matter of an advanced advisory, the Chief Executive said that he won’t hesitate to re-impose hard lockdowns just to make sure that a similar scenario with that of last year won’t happen again.
“Now, it is not only Indonesia, tinamaan ulit ang Korea at Taiwan. Sila ‘yung nag-lockdown kasi pumasok nga itong variant na Delta. Pagka nandito na kung sakali man it will spread, I hope it will not, then we’ll have to go again to stricter measures. We are not the only one. And also tinamaan ng Delta is UK. Balik rin sila sa dati,” he quipped.