Vice President Leni Robredo’s camp on Sunday urged the national government to keep a close eye on the Delta subvariant, which has been reported in at least 42 countries.
While the camp commended the decline in new COVID-19 infections, Robredo’s spokesman Attorney Barry Gutierrez expressed alarm over subvariant, which is linked to the increase in number of COVID-19 infections in other countries.
“Humuhupa ang surge na ito. Kasi nakakatakot noong una, umaabot tayo nang 20,000 mahigit sa isang araw. Ngayon umaabot na ng 4,000 o 3,000 per day. Siyempre malaking improvement yan, Pero kailangan pa rin magbantay,” said Gutierrez over VP Robredo’s weekly radio show.
(The number of infections is declining. Before, we reached 20,000 new cases daily. Now, we get only 4,000 or 3,000. This is a big improvement but we need to be vigilant.)
“Sa ibang bansa may bagong subvariant na naman e, na nagda-drive [up] ng kaso. Hindi puwedeng magpabaya,” he added.
(In other countries, there is already a new subvariant that drives up the number of cases. We can’t be complacent.)
Gutierrez was referring to the Delta subvariant or AY.4.2, which has been investigated by the World Health Organization (WHO).
At present, the WHO is looking into whether the subvariant is more transmissible than the Delta variant, and if people are more vulnerable to it.
Citing latest DOH case bulletins, Gutierrez recognized that the Philippines’ daily case tallies were decreasing.
DOH on October 27 recorded 3,218 new infections, the lowest since May 23.
As of October 30, Philippines logged 2,783,896 total COVID-19 cases, with 2,693,162 recoveries and 43,044 deaths.
Philippines has yet to log a Delta subvariant case, but it detected the first case of B.1.1.318 variant, which was first detected in Mauritius, an island nation in Africa.
Vaccination in provinces
Meanwhile, Gutierrez also said the national government must focus on increasing vaccination in provinces after most of Metro Manila’s population were inoculated.
“Pero sa probinsya, mababa pa rin ang porsyento ng kababayan na nava vaccinate. Kailangan iyon ay tutukan. (It is still low in provinces. We should focus on vaccinating more of their residents.),” said Gutierrez.
He also lamented that based on the Office of the Vice President’s vaccine express program, many local government units in the provinces are still having logistical issues such as lack of vaccinators.
Earlier, Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said they are ramping up vaccination to 1.5 million jabs daily as finding vaccine supply is no longer a problem. —GMA News
VP camp wants gov’t vigilance vs. coronavirus’ Delta subvariant
Source: Pinoy Hub News
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