Philippines strengthens COVID-19 screening, surveillance activities

Published July 10, 2020 10:58 AM By VIRGIL LOPEZ,GMA News

The Philippines’ COVID-19 task force has approved measures seeking to strengthen screening and surveillance activities to curb the spread of the disease, Malacañang said Friday.

These measures include the hiring of more civilians who would serve as additional personnel for contact tracing and swabbing in ports of entry and dedicating Subic and other ports as hubs for international crew change, subject to established health protocols and guidelines.

The task force also backed the establishment of one-stop shops under the Department of Transportation (DOTr) for uniform processing of arrivals in all gateways.

The new measures were approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, the IATF adopted the inbound flight crew protocols as mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The IATF directed the DOTr, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, and the Civil Aeronautics Board to issue the necessary guidelines, specifying that inbound flight crew must remain in their accommodation establishments upon arrival to avoid transmission.

The Philippines has so far reported 51,754 COVID-19 cases, with 12,813 recoveries and 1,314 deaths.—AOL, GMA News
 

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