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MANILA. – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to send people to prison for refusing to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, as the government placed the country’s border controls on “heightened alert” over new cases of the Delta variant.

“You can choose: you get the vaccine or I will send you to jail,” Duterte said in Tagalog during an address on Monday night.

The Philippines began its vaccination programme in March but there have been reports of low turnouts at several vaccination centres in the country, although people are also reportedly scrambling to get the limited supply of the Pfizer BioNtech jabs.

Admitting that he is growing exasperated by “these fools”, who refused to get vaccinated, Duterte then threatened to inject them “with shots intended for pigs”.

Duterte has also previously threatened to shoot Filipinos found violating lockdown restrictions during the pandemic. 

Since that threat, there have been several cases of alleged violators being killed by authorities, including an elderly man and a former soldier, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Of the country’s estimated 110 million population, only about 1.95 percent were fully vaccinated as of Monday, according to the vaccine tracker, Herd Immunity PH.

According to a separate report by the government on Monday night, 8.4 million doses of vaccine have been administered. 

At least 6.2 million people have received their first dose, while 2.15 million are fully vaccinated. 

As of Monday, the Philippines had reported 1.3 million coronavirus cases, with almost 56000 still active. 

Many of the new cases are attributed to the surge of infections in Duterte’s political stronghold of Mindanao. More than 23 700 have died, including 138 on Monday.

Duterte said that those refusing to get inoculated should just “leave the country”, and either go to India or the United States.

The Philippines medical community has been stepping up efforts to encourage citizens to get the coronavirus vaccine, opening inoculation sites at churches, malls and cinemas, in order to give Filipinos easier access to the shots.

The government has resorted to incentives to get the Covid-19 shot, including giving away cattle.
But the president’s latest statement drew immediate condemnation from the Philippines’ health practitioners.

Harold Chiu, a specialist in endocrinology at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila, said that it is “against patient autonomy to force and incarcerate people for refusing an intervention.”

“I encourage everyone to get vaccinated because vaccines work and they prevent us from getting severe Covid-19.”

Mia Magdalena Longid, a teacher and registered nurse,  said that she does not think “punishing people will encourage them to get vaccinated”. – Al Jazeera