President Rodrigo Duterte said that he asked the Department of Health and the Department of Science and Technology to create a task force that would focus on the new strain of the coronavirus disease discovered in the United Kingdom.
“Medical, ideally, it should be medical persons na nakatutok lang talaga diyan sa bagong strain, whether or not it is here or not and whether or not it is as virulent… sabi naman ni doktora hindi masyado,” Duterte said in a live briefing.
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More than 40 countries have imposed a travel restriction for travellers from the United Kingdom due to the more infectious variant of the virus.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that current evidence suggests that the new COVID-19 strain has a “70 percent higher transmissibility.”
However, he added that there was no indication that the new strain was more severe.
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“Mahirap kasi kung magano tayo, whether or nor itong ano na ito is as virulent or as toxic as COVID… para sa akin pareho. The contact is there, the possibility of contact is there because you have to talk to people and in the transit, a lot of locals are there working,” Duque said.
“The policemen, the security guards are there, and while waiting I said they are in a room that maybe somebody, somehow, would pass it on to a Filipino coming home,” he added. (TDT)
