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MANILA, Philippines – Reimposing strict lockdown measures is “a possibility” should the UK’s newest strain of COVID, which is feared to be more infectious, enters and spreads to the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Saturday.
“Actually, blocking iyong is a possibility. I said that we are making some projections, but if the severity in the number would demand that we take immediate corrective measures, then we just have to go back to the lockdown, ”Duterte said in a meeting with members of his cabinet and infectious disease experts.
“Pagkarumami sila with the new strain, and in the meantime we cannot deal with them effectively, I mean the virus, well we just have to… size iyan depends on severity in number. Kasi kapag marami na we don’t have the antidote on how to kill those variants. We are going to have a problem there, ”he added.
(When they multiply with the new strain, and in the meantime we are not able to deal with them effectively, I mean the virus, we have to … that’s correct … it depends on the severity in number. Because when there are many infections there we have the antidote on how to kill those variants).
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson previously announced stricter restrictions in his country after experts found a more infectious strain of the coronavirus, which, he said, “perhaps up to 70 percent more transmissible than the previous strain.”
Several countries, including the Philippines, have imposed travel bans on the UK to prevent entry of the new strain.
In mid-March, Duterte placed the entire island of Luzon, home to roughly half of the country’s total population, under an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) just days after a failed attempt to limit the movement of people living and they work within Metro Manila.
Since then, the lockdown has eased with Metro Manila, the country’s economic center, which has been under general community quarantine (GCQ) since June.
As of Saturday, there are 469,005 confirmed COVID-19 cases nationwide, including 431,055 recoveries and 9,067 deaths.
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