Rodrigo Duterte Philippine president directs community leaders to keep those who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus in their homes and arrest them if the unvaccinated do not obey, Carlo Nograles Presidential spokesman on Friday.
Look out for the unvaccinated and tell them to stay calm! If they disobey (…), the village chief has the right to arrest them
– said the president at a meeting of the Epidemiology Committee on Thursday, according to MTI.
Nograles said the nationwide provision is meant to protect people and stressed that “unvaccinated people put everyone at risk.”
In an area of more than 13 million metropolitan Manila, restrictions were already imposed in early January on non-vaccinated people, who can only leave their homes in particularly important cases. The number of newly infected people in the region jumped again, as authorities explained the alarming numbers with festive gatherings and the spread of the omicron variant.
The country’s health ministry reported 21,819 new infections and 129 deaths on Friday, the highest number since September 26. As of Friday, it is already known that the epidemic in the Philippines has infected more than 2.91 million people and killed 51,871.
