By Robina Asido

President Rodrigo Duterte said the government should " recalibrate" its COVID-19 response as cases reached an all-time high of 22,366 on Monday.

"The Philippines recorded its highest single day tally since the pandemic at more than 22,000 new cases. Whether the rise in the new number of cases due to the Delta variant or not we need to recalibrate our response," Duterte said during the Talk to the People aired on Tuesday morning.

Duterte said although the recent implementation of the enhanced community quarantine slowed down the spread of the virus, the government is still assessing the effectiveness of the localized lockdowns.

"Although we have shared the positive effect of the recent ECQ and NCR which lower the reproduction rate of the virus, we are also evaluating whether granular or localized lockdowns would work best in our current situation. It should be studied by the national task force," he said.

Duterte said despite rising COVID-19 cases in the country, the fatality rate in the Philippines is still much lower compared to other countries.

"Europe is suffering from the many fatalities. Saudi Arabia has more deaths, while here in our country the death toll is not too many so for the meantime NCR and surrounding area will remain under MECQ until September 7," he said.

Duterte said the public to must be vaccinated and continue to follow minimum health standard to prevent the further spread of the virus. DMS