Malaya

Over 80% of COVID patients in ICUs unvaxxed — DILG

January 4, 2022 Joel dela Torre 376 views

THE government will strictly restrict the mobility of unvaccinated individuals in Metro Manila following the surge of COVID-19 infections that peaked during the holiday season when the alert level was eased.

According to Interior and Local Government spokesman Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, the pandemic “is driven by the unvaccinated” citing the Department of Health (DOH) records that 80 to 85 percent of the patients in the intensive care units (ICUs) requiring mechanical ventilators in Metro Manila hospital are not vaccinated.

“So ‘yung mga unvaccinated (against COVID-19) na ito sila ngayon ang nagkakalat ng sakit na ito. Sila ngayon ‘yung pumupuno sa mga ospital natin,’’ Malaya said.

He explained that “punishing” the unvaccinated individuals by restricting their movement and limiting their access to services would somehow give the “cooperative and law-abiding” citizens some sort of relief.

Unvaxxed individuals are only allowed to go out of their residences to buy essential needs such as medicine and food.

“All other things hindi po sila (unvaccinated) papayagan,’’ Malaya said in an interview with ABS-CBN.

Malaya said the practice of heightened restrictions is not only common in the Philippines but in other countries including Europe.

The DILG official likewise encouraged state workers to avail of the free vaccine program to avoid having to present a negative RT-PCR test every two weeks at their own expense.

“So magpabakuna na kasi libre naman ‘yung bakuna, so, bakit natin pahihirapan ang ating mga kababayan,’’ he stressed.

Malaya urged business owners, traders and company presidents to impose strict health protocol regulations on their workforce.

“Sila na ngayon ang magpapatupad nito (health protocols) at ang legal basis nila is the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) resolution,’’ he added.

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