PEOPLE who remain unvaccinated against Covid-19 may no longer be allowed to leave their homes, after President Duterte late Wednesday ordered authorities to confine unvaccinated people to their homes. 

"If they will leave their homes, I will ask the police to escort them to their homes because they are walking spreaders [of Covid-19]," Duterte said during his latest public address. 

Duterte adopted the policy despite admitting there is currently no law to sanction people who refuse to be inoculated against Covid-19.

His premise – that unvaccinated people can be super spreaders – is also bound to raise questions, given the admission by health experts that even fully vaccinated people can still pick up the virus, remain asymptomatic, and unknowingly spread it. This was seen in the case of 82 Quezon City policemen who tested positive for Covid-19 despite being fully vaccinated. There is fear that the 51 of them deployed during the President's State of the Nation Address (SONA) may have knowingly passed on the virus.

"We have to come up with a law punishing a guy. A person who has not been vaccinated ang going around. We do not have a law," Duterte said. 

"But if we will wait for the law, many more people will die [from Covid-19]. That is the problem. There is no law," he added. 

He said he takes full responsibility for his new policy pronouncement. 

Duterte explained he has to resort to the tougher measure as more cases of the Delta variant are detected in the country.

The Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is being blamed for the recent surge in Covid-19 cases here and abroad.  

To incentivize people to get inoculated, Duterte said fully vaccinated individuals will be allowed to leave their homes and go to public places. 

"I don't have any qualms of people coming out if you are vaccinated. What is the purpose of having a vaccine if you cannot go out? The vaccinated could go out and go on strolls," Duterte said.

Image courtesy of AP/Bullit Marquez

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