Delta variant ‘last major hurdle’ PH must go through — OCTA fellow

San Juan City residents get inoculated with a single dose of Johnson & Johnson’s at the FilOil Flying V Center on Wednesday, July 21, where around 600 individuals from A2-A3 priority categories recieved the one-shot vaccine. Niño Jesus Orbeta/Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — The COVID-19 Delta variant may be the country’s “last major hurdle” in the course of the pandemic as the Philippines continues its vaccination drive against the disease, a fellow of the OCTA Research group said Friday.

Dr. Guido David noted that while the Delta variant is expected to cause a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, the Philippines has been able to overcome previous surges of cases driven by different variants.

“I think this is the last major hurdle that we have to go through, not just until the end of the year,” he said in an interview over ABS CBN’s News Channel.

“If we can beat this Delta variant, it would be a big victory for us because other countries are struggling to deal with this Delta variant,” he added.

The Delta variant is currently the predominant variant worldwide and there is no “new and more threatening” variant yet so there is no expected new surge of cases apart from that expected from the Delta variant, David pointed out.

Should there be a new variant in the future, a possible surge is expected to be “slowed down” since the Philippines is already vaccinating its population and it would be harder for the new variant to spread.

He pointed out that the current increase of cases in Metro Manila is “actually slightly slowed down” since at least 20% of its population have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Once we reach herd immunity or even population protection, it would be harder for the virus to get in the country or to cause a spread or community tranmission. That in itself will limit the threat of the virus in the future,” David said.

“That’s why I am optimistic that if we can go through this, we’ll have a very happy Christmas,” he added.

The government is aiming to achieve population protection in Metro Manila as well as eight other areas by the end of the year.

So far, the Philippines has detected a total of 216 Delta variant cases.

/MUF