Asia News on Jan. 7, 2022

As infections reached a three-month high, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte announced yesterday that individuals who have not received Covid-19 shots would be arrested if they break stay-at-home orders.

In a televised address to the country, Duterte said he was ordering local officials to hunt out unvaccinated persons and confine them to their residences.

“He can be arrested if he resists, if he leaves his residence and walks about the neighborhood.  If he refuses, the officer now has the authority to arrest resistant individuals,” Duterte said.

On Thursday, the Philippines’ health ministry reported the greatest number of daily coronavirus infections since September 26, with 17,220 cases, including those caused by the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The figure, which had more than tripled from Tuesday’s number, raised the total number of cases to over 2.88 million, with more than 51,700 fatalities, making it the second-highest number of Covid-19 infections and deaths in Southeast Asia, behind Indonesia.