{"id":279789,"date":"2020-12-27T05:11:18","date_gmt":"2020-12-27T10:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=279789"},"modified":"2020-12-27T05:11:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T10:11:18","slug":"prrd-floats-possible-imposition-of-another-lockdown-in-ph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/12\/27\/prrd-floats-possible-imposition-of-another-lockdown-in-ph\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD floats possible imposition of another lockdown in PH"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Barangay Public Safety Officers (BPSO) of Barangay Kaligayahan in Novaliches, Quezon City close the road at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Jordan Plains and only allow those who have emergency purposes during curfew hours on Thursday (March 19, 2020). (PNA photo by Oliver Marquez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday broached the idea of reimposing stricter lockdown nationwide in an effort to prevent the entry of a new strain of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) from the United Kingdom (UK) to the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Duterte floated the idea in a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and infectious diseases experts held at Malaca\u00f1an Palace in Manila.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0(the reimposition of another national) lockdown is a possibility. I said we\u2019re making some projection. But if the severity in numbers would demand that we take corrective measures immediately, then we just have to go back to lockdown,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he would decide depending on the \u201cseverity on the number\u201d of cases of the new variant of the SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes Covid-2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends on the severity of the number.\u00a0Kasi kapag marami na<\/em>\u00a0(If the cases rise) and we do not have the antidote on how to kill those variants, we\u2019ll have a problem there and of course, we\u2019ll also be hard-pressed on looking for the money for the expenses in the meantime.\u00a0Magastos iyan<\/em>\u00a0(That will be costly),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The British government has imposed tougher measures after it discovered the new strain of Covid-19, which could be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the previous variants.<\/p>\n

As of Saturday, the Department of Health (DOH) said the Philippines has 28,883 active Covid-19 cases and 431,055 recoveries. It also reported five new deaths, bringing the total to 9,067.<\/p>\n

Duterte initially imposed a strictest enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in March this year to curb the further spread of Covid-19 in the country.<\/p>\n

He, however, decided to eventually ease the health and quarantine measures to pave the way for the reopening of the Philippine economy.<\/p>\n

Secure borders<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duterte emphasized the need to secure the country\u2019s borders to prevent the possible entry of the new Covid-19 strain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is very important is really to control the entry of people, whether or not they have in their bodies already the virus. That\u2019s another thing. But\u00a0kailangan nating i<\/em>-control\u00a0yung<\/em>\u00a0borders\u00a0natin<\/em>\u00a0(it is important that we control our borders),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Local Government Secretary Eduardo A\u00f1o, who was present at the meeting, said the situation in the country is \u201cmanageable.\u201d<\/p>\n

A\u00f1o, nevertheless, said there is a need to monitor UK and other countries with reported cases of the new Covid-19 strain.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur situation in the country is manageable if we are looking at the local Covid situation. What we have to really guard or to watch out is the international borders because the new strain is coming from those identified countries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Due to concerns over the spread of a new variant of Covid-19, Duterte has initially approved the IATF-EID\u2019s resolution that bans Philippines flights from the UK from December 24 to 31.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Duterte approved the recommendation of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque to extend the travel ban for another two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday broached the idea of reimposing stricter lockdown nationwide in an effort to prevent the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":249877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279791,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279789\/revisions\/279791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}