Shortened isolation for healthcare workers ‘discretionary,’ says Duque

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Wednesday said the shortened isolation for medical frontliners is not absolute but discretionary.

At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum, the Health chief said this matter would depend on the situation of hospitals and medical facilities.

Duque said those on the ground would know if the quarantine period of healthcare workers will be shortened considering the number of patients they are catering to.

"'Yung ating pinaigsing isolation for healthcare workers (the shortened isolation for healthcare workers), that is not absolute. It's discretionary to the hospitals' infection prevention [and] control committee or the provincial health office because they know on the ground what will be the risk benefit considerations given how many more patients they are admitting..." Duque said.

"So depende 'yan (it depends), it's not automatic so given this latitude... to be able to make that determination whether kung kakaunti na 'yung healthcare workers eh bakunado naman lahat, nabooster naman, chances are lahat ng healthcare workers, close to 100% of them, they are vaccinated completely, boostered as well," he added.

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

The IATF Resolution 156 states that hospital infection prevention and control committees can also implement shortened isolation protocols for COVID-19 for fully vaccinated healthcare workers "in extreme circumstances and upon weighing risks and benefits."

Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire earlier said that those fully vaccinated healthcare workers infected with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic and a mild and/or moderate case should be isolated for at least five days as against 10-day isolation period for fully vaccinated general population infected with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic and a mild and/or moderate case.

Following this, the DOH 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.

Amid this development, infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said he does not highly recommend shortening the period of quarantine and isolation for the vulnerable population. — RSJ, GMA News