A vaccine expert warned Monday, Aug. 16, that the continued violation of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) health and safety protocols would mean more virus transmission and mutations.
Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP) chairperson Dr. Nina Gloriani appealed to the public to strictly follow the public health standards set by the government amid the surging COVID-19 cases in the country.
“Ang transmission ay tuloy tuloy pa rin. Kulang pa rin ang ating precaution, ‘yung pag-adhere sa public health standard na kailangan natin (The transmission continues. We still fail short in terms of observing precautions, our adherence to public health standard that we need),” she said during a virtual public briefing.
The Department of Health (DOH) announced on Sunday, Aug. 15, the detection of the first case Lambda variant of the coronavirus in the country.
Apart from the first case of the Lambda variant, the Health department also reported the detection of additional 182 cases with the Delta variant, 66 cases with the Beta variant, 41 cases with the Alpha variant, and 40 cases with the P.3 variant.
“Maraming mutation ang mangyayari at ang mutation ang maggagawa nitong iba ibang variants na ito, at iba iba po ang mutation ng iba ibang parts ng virus (Many mutations will happen and the mutation will make these different variants, and the mutation of different parts of the virus varies),” Gloriani warned.
As of Sunday, the Philippines has so far logged 14,749 more cases of COVID-19, pushing the number of active cases to 102,748.
Gloriani said the government should also ramp up its COVID-19 vaccination drive to protect the people against COVID-19 and its variants, lamenting the country’s “low” immunization rate.
Over 12 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 14 million others got their first dose.