Duterte seeks creation of task force for new COVID-19 variant

President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday asked the Department of Health and the Department of Science and Technology to create a new task force that would focus on the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) variant found 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.

A new variant of the COVID-19 was found spreading in the United Kingdom.

Due to this, the Philippines and more than 40 countries have suspended travel from the United Kingdom. The suspension in the country started on December 24, 2020 at 12:01 a.m. and will end on December 31, 2020.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that current evidence suggests that the new COVID-19 variant has a "70 percent higher transmissibility." However, he added that there was no indication that the new variant was more severe.

However, Duterte said the Philippine Government should not be complacent and that it should “treat the virus as a deadly disease that could be entering the Philippines.”

“Mahirap kasi kung mag-ano tayo, whether or not 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,” he 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. — DVM/KG, GMA News