TWO weeks after a report over a new and deadlier coronavirus strain was made public, President Rodrigo Duterte convened infectious disease experts and top health officials last night to discuss changes in policies on how to deal with the new COVID-19 strain that emerged in the United Kingdom.
President Duterte cut short his holiday stay in Davao City where he spent Christmas with his family, and returned to Malacañang for the 6 p.m. meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases or IATF.
According to Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, the president seemed very much worried about the new COVID-19 strain that causes the severe respiratory disease.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier announced more stringent lockdown measures over the Christmas holiday in the United Kingdom. He said the new variant “may be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original version of the disease.”
As for the scientists, what they see is a mutated coronavirus which is 56 percent more contagious than what hit the world since March this year.
The president approved during the meeting the extension of the travel ban for all flights coming in from the UK for another two weeks, or until mid-January 2021. The ban, which started December 24, also includes those that transited from the UK. Roque said that it is also possible for the government to impose the same ban on travelers from places that have reported cases of the new variant like Singapore, Nigeria, and Hong Kong.
He further averred that if the mutated COVID-19 strain is proven to be more contagious, there would be a need for stricter implementation of health and safety protocols to prevent the spread of the disease.
The Palace spokesperson, however, warded off claims of wanton disregard of minimum public health safety protocols.
“And I think this Christmas, despite doubts, Filipinos have shown that they can follow minimum health standards,” he added.
In the new study, scientists warned that the more contagious mutated coronavirus may need a faster vaccine rollout to help prevent more deaths.
According to the study published on Wednesday by the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, researchers were still uncertain whether the new variant was more or less deadly than its predecessor.