The OCTA Research team said there is no complete assurance that the Philippines will achieve Delta variant resiliency soon.
In a statement on Wednesday (July 7), OCTA Research team fellow Dr. Guido David said that being Delta resilient points to being “immune” to the variant.
“When we say Delta resilient kasi, the understanding is parang immune na tayo sa Delta variant. But we are not seeing that in the UK. So it’s not sure na we will see that in the Philippines,” he said.
While health experts are confident that the Philippines will still achieve population protection this year, inoculating 50% of the population does not guarantee that the country will not experience COVID-19 surges.
“Sa UK, they’re having a major surge even though they’ve vaccinated 60% of their population. We hope to vaccinate more people para ma-achieve natin ‘yung population protection,” he added.
In relation to this, in an interview with Philippine Genome Center Executive Director Dr. Cynthia Saloma, she said that it is hard to say that Metro Manila may soon be Delta variant resilient in the coming months.
“Mahirap magsagot ng Delta resiliency. Ang gusto ko lang ipahiwatig sa lahat ng ating mga taga-pakinig, na sa mga emergence nitong mga variants, variants of concern and variants of interest, ang ating panangga talaga, number one is getting ourselves vaccinated.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) reminded the public not to be complacent against the threat of the Delta variant and emphasized the importance of completing the two doses of COVID-19 vaccine for full protection.
Report from Mark Fetalco/NGS-rir
