Metro Manila will again be locked down from Aug. 6 to 20 to try and arrest the rise in COVID-19 cases, particularly the more contagious Delta variant, even if it means disrupting business activity and displacing workers in the country’s economic center.

President Duterte has approved the recommendation of the government’s pandemic task force to extend the travel ban on 10 countries to contain the more transmissible variants of COVID-19.

Since the supply of COVID-19 jabs in the country is still not enough, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday that both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals will be treated similarly.

Six of eight deaths from the Delta variant of COVID-19 recorded in the country are local cases, the Department of Health said yesterday.

An early circuit-breaker lockdown, such as the one President Duterte just approved, will prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease among the unvaccinated.