Shorter quarantine, isolation not highly recommendable for vulnerable population —expert

An infectious disease expert on Wednesday said that he does not highly recommend shortening the period of quarantine and isolation for the vulnerable population.

Interviewed on GMA News' Unang Balita, Dr. Rontgene Solante of San Lazaro Hospital said shorter quarantine can be applied to the general public especially for the younger population who usually have only mild symptoms from COVID-19 infection.

“But for the vulnerable population like those who are 60 years old and with comorbidites, then I don’t highly recommend this shorter isolation and quarantine in the public," he said.

Earlier, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) recently approved the shortened isolation and quarantine period for fully vaccinated health workers infected with or exposed to COVID-19.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health said it will propose to the IATF a shortened quarantine period of five days for individuals who will test positive for COVID-19 but are fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, just like for the healthcare workers.

According to Solante, the shorter quarantine period can be applied to the general public depending on how it will be implemented.

“Ang importante lang dito 'yung (What’s crucial here is) how this will be implemented in the public, 'yung (with) correct information and  correct evaluation,” he said.

With vaccination against COVID-19, a patient’s viral load would be reduced earlier, which makes the disease less transmissible, Solante said.

4th or 5th vaccine dose

Meanwhile, Solante said offering fourth or fifth doses of COVID-19 vaccines should only be given to immune-compromised population like cancer and post-transplant patients.

He said this population’s uptake of antibodies from COVID-19 vaccines was very low.

“The data on fourth and fifth doses are not yet very robust if it is for the public. If there will be additional doses na kailangan ibigay (that we need to provide), it will only be muna ngayon  (for now) for the immune-compromised,” he said.

On Tuesday, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the government may extend the giving of primary doses of COVID-19 vaccine to up to fourth dose.

Galvez quoted the Vaccine Expert Panel as saying that people might need five doses of the vaccine to reach full immunity against COVID-19. —KG, GMA News