(BusinessWorld) HEALTH experts asked the government on Sunday to ban nonessential travel to and from Manila, the capital and nearby cities to stop the spread of a more contagious Delta coronavirus variant.

“We recommended that we place the National Capital Region (NCR) and surrounding provinces in a bubble,” Fredegusto Guido P. David, a research fellow at the OCTA Research Group from the University of the Philippines, said in a Facebook Messenger chat.

This would let the government keep the general lockdown in Metro Manila or even relax it to a modified general quarantine as long as the Delta variant from India is kept out, he added.

“We hope to prevent Delta from coming in so we can prevent lockdowns in NCR.”

The Health department on Friday said 16 more Filipinos had been infected with the Delta coronavirus variant, bringing the total to 35.

Five of the 16 were returning migrant Filipinos, while 11 were locals, the agency said in a statement on Friday.