Saying that it is a “cause of serious alarm and concern,” President Duterte on Monday, July 19, warned the public that the government might impose “stricter restrictions” anew if the more transmissible Delta variant spreads further in the country.

During his pre-recorded public address aired late Monday night, the President noted the additional 16 new cases of COVID-19 Delta variant recently recorded by the Department of Health (DOH).

Duterte said that “should put us in grave concern” because the variant is more “aggressive, vicious, and more virulent and can cause death faster than COVID-19.”

“We may need to reinforce stricter restrictions to avoid mass gathering and prevent super-spreader events,” the Chief Executive said.

The National Capital Region (NCR) is under general community quarantine (GCQ), as well as its neighboring provinces of Cavite, Bulacan, and Rizal, which are previously part of the NCR Plus bubble. Only Laguna remains under GCQ with heightened restrictions in the bubble.

Under the more restrictive modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) are Bataan, Iloilo City and Iloilo province, Cagayan de Oro City, Davao Occidental, Davao de Oro, Davao Del Sur, Davao Del Norte, and Butuan City.

READ: DOH detects 16 new cases of Delta variant in PH

But Duterte pointed out that Indonesia as well as South Korea and Taiwan, which had so far been doing good in their pandemic response, also had to go into another lockdown because of the Delta variant.

“Kapag nandito na, kung sakali man (If it is here already, if ever) it will spread, I hope it will not, then we’ll have to go again to stricter measures. We are not the only one,” Duterte said, noting that the United Kingdom is also going into a lockdown.

The President added that he hopes the existing infrastructure of the country in dealing with COVID-19 “can cope up.”

“I urged the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) and the PNP (Philippine National Police) to implement existing protocols with greater urgency and necessity. It is only by imposing the restrictions that we can fight the threat of Delta variant,” he said.

He reminded the public that the reason why the security forces of the government are very strict is not because they want to be strict and they want to make it hard for the people to move.

“Rather, they are strict because they want to protect the country from a very contagious disease and maybe cause more deaths more than the lives that we lost in the past,” Duterte added.

The country has a total of 35 cases of the Delta variant, including three deaths and 32 recoveries. The DOH has refused to announce that there is community transmission of the virus because all of the cases are linked to people who came from abroad.