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Palace adviser favors Delta lockdown in 'ghost month' than in Q4

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Katrina Domingo, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/news/04/28/20200424-covid-lockdown-day41-fsj-4430.jpg"/><figcaption>Workers from the Marikina City local government distribute relief goods on Friday to residents of Bgy. Tumana in Marikina City. <em>Fernando G. Sepe Jr., ABS-CBN News/File</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA - Several businesses &quot;prefer&quot; to have a lockdown next month to immediately arrest the spread of COVID-19&#x27;s Delta variant than have stricter community quarantine policies in the last quarter of the year, a Malacañang adviser said, Wednesday.</p><p>The months of September, October, November and December are more profitable for business, said Joey Concepcion, presidential adviser on entrepreneurship.</p><p>&quot;This is the quarter where consumers spend for Christmas. This is the quarter where election spending is expected to pour in,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;This is the quarter that would spell the difference what 2022 would be,&quot; he said.</p><p>August would be a good month to implement a &quot;circuit-breaker lockdown&quot; as most businesses limit spending during this time as auspicious investors consider it as a &quot;ghost month.&quot;</p><p>&quot;August is a ghost month. It is the weakest month for most of us so... The whole strategy is to hit it now if a lockdown is inevitable,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;We prefer we solve the problem early than wait for the problem to be bigger and then lockdown for months,&quot; he said.</p><p>Independent research group OCTA has been urging the government to impose a &quot;circuit-breaking&quot; lockdown to arrest the spread another uptick in coronavirus infections due to the highly transmissible Delta COVID-19 variant.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/27/21/octa-circuit-breaking-lockdown-slow-covid19-delta-spread">OCTA calls for &#x27;circuit-breaking&#x27; lockdown to slow Delta COVID-19 spread</a></li></ul><p>President Rodrigo Duterte earlier said the Philippines cannot afford another lockdown, but noted that he might consider it should there be another surge of COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant.</p><p>&quot;We cannot afford more lockdowns lest our economy bleeds to the point of irreversible damage,&quot; Duterte said about 2 hours into his final State of the Nation Address (SONA).</p><p>&quot;If it requires a new vaccine, we don&#x27;t have it yet. Maybe we just have to pray for salvation,&quot; he said.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/27/21/sona-2021-duterte-delta-variant-covid19">&#x27;Pray for salvation,&#x27; Duterte says in final SONA as threat of Delta variant looms over PH</a></li></ul><p>As of July 24, Philippines has confirmed 119 Delta variant cases.</p><p>The DOH has also tallied 94 additional Alpha variant cases, 179 Beta variant cases, and 9 cases of the P.3 variant or the variant first detected in the Philippines. </p><p>The DOH earlier said that Metro Manila&#x27;s healthcare capacity is expected to be at &#x27;moderate risk&#x27; in event of a new COVID-19 surge.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/28/21/metro-manila-healthcare-capacity-at-moderate-risk-in-event-of-new-covid-surge-doh">Metro Manila healthcare capacity at &#x27;moderate risk&#x27; in event of new COVID surge: DOH</a></li></ul><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1735515	" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>Several businesses "prefer" to have a lockdown next month to immediately arrest the spread of COVID-19's Delta variant than have stricter community quarantine policies in the last quarter of the year, a Malacañang adviser said, Wednesday.</p>

Several businesses "prefer" to have a lockdown next month to immediately arrest the spread of COVID-19's Delta variant than have stricter community quarantine policies in the last quarter of the year, a Malacañang adviser said, Wednesday.

Palace adviser favors Delta lockdown in 'ghost month' than in Q4

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Palace adviser favors Delta lockdown in 'ghost month' than in Q4

Katrina Domingo,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jul 28, 2021 02:48 PM PHT

|

Updated Jul 28, 2021 05:26 PM PHT

Read More:

COVID-19

coronavirus

Joey Concepcion

Delta lockdown

OCTA Research Group

business

health

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