Bureau of Quarantine monitoring 64 people from red list countries —DOH

The Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) is monitoring 64 individuals who entered the Philippines before travel restrictions could be imposed over their countries of origin, the Department of Health (DOH) said Thursday.

On November 26, the Philippines enforced temporary travel restrictions over South Africa, Botswana, and five other southern Africa countries with local cases or with the likelihood of occurrences of the Omicron variant.

Two days later, seven more countries, all in Europe, were added to the list.

“For all of those travelers who have come into the country, we have about 64 individuals that are now currently being monitored by the BOQ,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergerie told CNN.

She said all individuals who were able to enter the country before the restrictions were implemented have been traced and endorsed to local government units.

“What we did was to contact trace them, i-backtrace, and we endorsed them to our local governments so that they can be strictly monitored,” she said.

“If you remember, some of these countries were part of the green countries also and the yellow countries, so they had shorter protocols for quarantine,” she added.

The BOQ on Tuesday also said that it had traced the passengers and that no one has exhibited any signs of having COVID-19.

At present, the Philippines has imposed restrictions on South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and Italy.

Vergeire said returning overseas Filipinos who test positive are immediately sent for sequencing while only individuals with a high index of suspicion in communities are sequenced.

The Philippine Genome Center has said it needs to examine more samples, especially from returning Filipinos, amid the threat of the Omicron variant.

Travel restrictions

Meanwhile, Vergeire said the DOH will recommend to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) which countries to place on the red list.

“The plans and the protocols would be that we will be proposing to the IATF that these specific countries that we have identified to have this Omicron variant should be included in our red-listed countries,” she said.

Vergeire said the DOH is not only looking into the detection of the Omicron variant in its classification of countries.

“We also look at their incidence rates and two-week growth rates. Meaning how the number of cases is increasing in their specific country. So that’s part of our classification also,” she said.

“So aside from looking at the trends of cases in their area, if there is a detection of this Omicron variant, and then we propose that they be included,” she added.

Compliance with protocols

Vergeire also urged local government units to strictly enforce the health protocols such as the 50% capacity indoors.

“What we are concerned about would be that establishments are not complying with the specific protocols that we have, with the capacity, and we are encouraging and we are asking local governments to enforce better,” she said.

“The protocols are there. This alert level system has been proven to be more effective than the wider community quarantine restrictions, but we all need to do our part by not being complacent,” she added. — BM, GMA News