DOH raises `heightened alert' vs Delta strain in PH borders. Inquirer Newsletter June 22, 2021

No images? Click here   FINALLY, SOME LIGHT Millions, such as this woman waiting for her turn for a COVID-19 shot at the New Frontier theater in Cubao, Quezon City, are seeing the light of vaccination as a way out of the long, dark tunnel of the pandemic.     World HK’s Apple Daily may shut ‘in days’ Hong Kong prodemocracy newspaper Apple Daily will be forced to shut “in a matter of days” after authorities froze the company’s assets under a national security law, an adviser to jailed owner Jimmy Lai told Reuters on Monday. —REPORTS FROM REUTERS AND AFP Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Regions Cebu lawyers sue IATF over health protocols Two lawyers here on Monday filed a petition in court to declare the national pandemic task force’s protocols for returning overseas Filipinos as “ineffective and inapplicable” in Cebu province, where a different set of testing and quarantine guidelines is observed. —Story by Dale G. Israel Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Newsletter / Join us Has this been forwarded by a friend? Subscribe now to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Newsletter and get your latest news and important updates on COVID-19. Subscribe   Sign up here     Banner Story DOH raises `heightened alert' vs Delta strain in PH borders As four new cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus were detected in the country, the Department of Health (DOH) has raised “heightened alert” in border controls to block the entry of the highly infectious strain. “We will uphold the directive of the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) and the President because we want to prevent further the entry of this Delta variant,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a media briefing on Monday. “All are on heightened alert. All LGUs (local government units} were informed to be on guard against the Delta variant across all borders. We cannot have nonuniformity in the implementation of our border control,” she stressed. Four Delta variant cases were detected from the 45 COVID-19 samples analyzed by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) last week. All four are returning Filipinos; three have recovered and only one remains in the hospital. A total of 17 Delta variant cases have so far been detected in the country; 15 have recovered, one has died while one is still ill. First detected in India late last year, the Delta variant is becoming the dominant COVID-19 variant globally since it appears to be more transmissible, according to the World Health Organization. Studies showed that people infected with the Delta variant could be more likely to be hospitalized, but there is no evidence that it is more deadly than the other strains. 60% more contagious According to Vergeire, the Delta variant is believed to be 60 percent more transmissible than the contagious Alpha variant first detected in the United Kingdom late last year. An Alpha-positive person can infect four to five persons, while a Delta-positive one can infect eight persons, she explained. Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Editorial Off-the-cuff policymaking Even by the freewheeling, helter-skelter standards of policy-making that have defined the Duterte administration, the spectacle of confusion that erupted last week among top officials over whether citizens should continue wearing face shields takes the cake.    Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net           Share    Tweet    Share    Forward  Copyright © 2020 PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 2353, Makati Central Post Office, 1263 Makati City, Philippines. Preferences  |  Unsubscribe