Palace: COVID-19 quarantine status for review every 15 days amid Delta variant threat

FILE PHOTO: Last-minute shoppers queue in line outside a grocery store in San Juan City on Monday, August 3, 2020, as the National Capital Region (NCR) prepares to return to a stricter modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) for two weeks. INQUIRER/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — Quarantine classifications in various parts of the country will now be reviewed every 15 days – instead of monthly – due to the threat of the COVID-19 Delta variant, Malacañang said Tuesday.

“Sinabihan na po ng IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] ang Presidente na ang ating classification will now be every 15 days. Kasi we need to be able to move quickly kapag talagang sumipa po ang kaso ng Delta variant,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press briefing.

(The IATF already told the President that our classifications will now be every 15 days. Because we need to be able to move quickly if the cases spike due to the Delta variant.)

“Ganyan po ‘yung anyo ng Delta variant, bigla na lang sumisipa. So kung dati po ay nasasanay tayo ng monthly ang ating quarantine classifications, ngayon po, ginagawa natin at least every two weeks, pero every week po minomonitor natin at we will not hesitate to impose stricter lockdowns,” he added.

(That’s the nature of the Delta variant, it suddenly spikes the cases. Before, we were used to the monthly quarantine classifications, now we will do it every two weeks. But every week, we monitor and we will not hesitate to impose stricter lockdowns.)

President Rodrigo Duterte, in his final State of the Nation Address, warned of possible lockdown should the Delta variant further spread in the country.

Duterte admitted he does “not know what to do” about it, so he will listen to the advice of the COVID-19 task force.

In Metro Manila, a 47-percent increase in its COVID-19 cases was observed prompting Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to advise local government units to intensify their measures to curb infections.

Health authorities have so far detected 119 cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant in the country.

KGA