DOH plans only local response to virus variant

Metro Manila will not be placed under lockdown again despite rising Covid-19 infections and detected cases with highly contagious virus variants.

Instead, said the Department of Health (DOH), the response will be “localized” like the lockdown in some barangays in Pasay City where three of the six of the country’s first cases of the South Africa variant were detected.

The DOH met with Metro Manila mayors, the Metro Manila Development Authority and the Department of the Interior and Local Government on Wednesday.

“We didn’t talk about stricter restrictions, stricter community quarantine measures in the entire Metro Manila,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire briefed reporters on Thursday.

“We discussed how each locality should have their localized response, like Pasay has 77 barangays on localized lockdown with police visibility,” she said.

She said the mayors were asked to adopt intensive contact tracing, quarantine and isolation efforts.

“Once they find the close contacts, they should be placed under quarantine within 24 hours so that we can cut the transmission immediately,” Vergeire said.

The mayors were also advised to strictly monitor public compliance to minimum health standards.

“Even if the (contagious) variants are here, we can’t attribute the increase in cases to the variants. As long as cases increase, variants or mutations will happen to the virus,” Vergeire said.