Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday people who have not taken COVID-19 shots will be arrested if they disobeyed stay-at-home orders as infections hit a three-month high.
Duterte is well known for his bellicose rhetoric. Last year, he threatened those who refuse to get vaccinated with jail or an injection of Ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug widely used to treat animals.
However, Duterte’s latest remarks in a televised address to the nation underscored his government’s growing concerns over the rising number of COVID-19 cases which health experts warn could overwhelm the country’s health systems again.
In his address, he asked community leaders to look for unvaccinated people and make sure they were confined to their homes.
“If he refuses, if he goes out his house and goes around the community, he can be restrained. If he refuses, the captain is empowered now to arrest recalcitrant persons,” Duterte said, reports CTV News Canada.
Daily coronavirus infections in the Philippines hit the highest number of cases since Sept. 26 at 17,220 cases on Thursday, the health ministry said, including those caused by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Thursday’s case count was more than triple the recorded count on Tuesday – bringing the total of cases to over 2.88 million, and deaths to more than 51,700, the second-highest COVID-19 infections and casualties in Southeast Asia.
“I am responsible for the safety and well-being of every Filipino,” Duterte said as he challenged those who disapprove of his directive to file a case against him.
At the end of 2021, about 49.8 million people had been fully vaccinated, or 45 percent of the country’s 110 million people. Under existing rules, unvaccinated people in the capital region of Manila can only step out of their homes for essential trips.
