Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said Monday he supported maintaining the less strict general community quarantine (GCQ) status in Metro Manila in January despite the threat of a new, potentially more transmissible variant of COVID-19.
Reimposing stringent lockdown measures may not be needed for now in the Philippine capital, which has yet to record a case of a coronavirus variant that recently emerged in the UK, he told Teleradyo.
"Para sa akin, hindi pa naman kinakailangan na magkaroon tayo ng lockdown kasi nga wala pa tayong pruweba na nakapasok dito," Año said.
(For me, there's no need to impose a lockdown because there's no proof [that the coronavirus variant] has entered the country.)
President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to announce on Monday new quarantine classifications for next year.
The chief executive said Saturday a lockdown may be "a possibility" if the coronavirus variant is detected in the country.
Año said the country already imposed travel restriction on the United Kingdom, while those coming from countries with cases of the COVID-19 variant would have to undergo mandatory quarantine.
"Ang aming focus talaga ngayon ay paano mapipigilan ang pagpasok ng bagong variant dito sa loob ng bansa," he said.
(Our focus now is to prevent the entry of the new variant in our country.)
The variant of the virus was first reported earlier this month in the UK and has since been detected in other countries, including Japan, South Korea, and Australia.
Experts have said the mutated coronavirus could be up to 70 percent more transmissible but there was no evidence of it being virulent.
Since the pandemic began, the Philippines has so far tallied 469,886 coronavirus infections, of which 9,109 resulted in deaths. Some 438,678 people have recovered from the disease while 22,099 are still sick with the virus.
The Philippines employs a 4-level community quarantine scheme ranging from the strictest enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to the most relaxed MGCQ.
The quarantine level dictates the type of business activities allowed in a certain area, as well as travel restrictions.
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