The number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country is seen to increase further amid the spread of the Delta variant of coronavirus, a government health adviser said Friday, Aug. 27.

“Alam natin, tataas talaga ang kaso kahit anong gawin natin dahil (We know, the case will definitely increase no matter what we do because) this virus is two to three times more infectious than the other viral variants,” Infectious disease expert Dr. Edsel Salvaña said in a public briefing.

The health expert said a so-called “Delta tsunami” scenario may still occur even a six-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) will be imposed because the variant spreads rapidly.

“akita naman natin sa models, kahit anong gawin natin, kahit na anim na linggo pa iyon ng ECQ, tatamaan talaga tayo ng tinatawag namin na Delta tsunami. (We see in our models, no matter what we do, even if it's a six weeks of ECQ, the so-called Delta tsunami will really hit us),” Salvaña said.

“Kasi ang bilis talaga noong pagkalat dito (Because the speed of the spread is really fast) and the best way to protect the health system is to reduce the proportion who will need hospitalization and the only way is really with as high a vaccination rate as possible,” he added.

The Department of Health (DOH) has earlier confirmed that there is now a community transmission of the Delta variant in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Calabarzon.

So far, there are a total of 1,273 cases of Delta variant detected in the country.

Meanwhile, Salvaña lamented that the implementation of strict lockdowns to control the spread of infection no longer work due to the “extreme” transmissibility of the variant.

“Hindi na ganoon rin kasulit iyong ating mga sobrang strict na lockdowns talaga dahil ibang-iba talaga itong Delta (Our strict lockdowns aren't that worth it anymore because this Delta is really very different),” Salvaña said.

“Even like for instance, ang Australia na nag-lockdown (Australia imposed a lockdown) because of two cases of Delta hindi talaga masyadong gumana dahil extreme po talaga iyong transmissibility nitong Delta (it doesn't really work very well because the transmissibility of this Delta is really extreme) and so we really have to be innovative,” he added.

But Salvaña noted that the country has the capacity to fight the highly transmissible variant of coronavirus through vaccination and strict observance of the minimum public health standards (MPHS).

“Ang pinaka laban talaga natin dito (Our way to fight this...is vaccination. Kasi iyong vaccination is, parang iyon yung pinaka-last line of defense natin (Because vaccination is like our last line of defense),” he said.

“Kahit makalusot siya dito sa ating mga ginagawang mask, face shield, kapag tinamaan ka ng COVID (Even if you got infected with COVID), your risk of ending up in the hospital and dying from COVID goes down by 90 percent,” he added.