Doctors' group urges DOH to reconsider new COVID-19 quarantine policy

The Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) on Thursday asked the Department of Health (DOH) to reconsider its new policy cutting the quarantine period for fully vaccinated mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.

In an interview with GMA News Online, PCP president Dr. Maricar Limpin said they support the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) in shortening the isolation period of fully vaccinated healthcare workers infected with or exposed to COVID-19 to five days.

However, this should not be the same case for everyone who got exposed to the virus but have milder symptoms or none at all.

“For the shortening of the protocol, I think it should concern the healthcare workers lang and hindi pwedeng general public,” Limpin said, stressing that the Philippines should not follow what the United States did as it resulted in a surge of cases.

As opposed to the healthcare workers, she explained that the public might not have access to tighter masks that could give them a higher degree of protection against COVID-19.  Some might also disregard physical distancing after their isolation.

She noted that an infected person might still transmit the virus six to ten days from onset of symptoms.

“Ang worry ko ay baka hindi ito magawa ng general public so ang possibility na pwedeng manghawa ay medyo mataas compared mo doon sa mga healthcare workers. At least kami, alam namin kung ano ‘yung mga kailangan at the hospital provides for that tight-fitting mask,” she said.

(My worry is that the general public might not be able to follow these, which could make the possibility of infection quite high compared to healthcare workers. For us, at least we know what the requirements are and the hospital provides that tight-fitting mask.)

Limpin said that for health workers they would still continue wearing tight-fitting masks after finishing the five-day quarantine time and they would get evaluated by a doctor to ensure that their conditions have gotten better and they do not have a fever for the past 24 hours.

The DOH is set to present to the IATF the new policies regarding the isolation and quarantine periods for confirmed cases and close contacts.

Quarantine period for fully vaccinated close contact of a COVID-19 patient would also be shortened to five days from the previous seven days.

Despite these adjusted protocols, Limpin emphasized that if there would be someone who would benefit from these, it would be the public as there would be more health workers to take care of them in case they go to the hospitals.

COVID-19 testing

Further, Limpin stressed that for surveillance purposes, the government should still identify if a person is positive or negative for COVID-19 as this would help contain the virus.

More testing kits should also have been procured by the government if they already expected an increase of infections due to the holiday gatherings and the threat of the Omicron variant, she said.

“‘Yung kakulangan ng tests, dapat hindi maging dahilan. Therefore, hindi dapat natin sinasabi sa mga tao na huwag na kayong magpa-test. Matagal na din nating sinasabi na gumawa ng paraan ang gobyerno para ma-subsidize ang mga test na ‘yan,” she added.

(The lack of tests should not be the reason. Therefore, we should not tell people not to get themselves tested. We have also been saying for a long time now that the government should find a way to subsidize those tests.)

On Wednesday, the DOH said RT-PCR testing is only recommended and prioritized for healthcare workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities, and optional for asymptomatic close contacts of confirmed cases and persons with mild symptoms.

“At this point, wherein we already have community transmission, contact tracing is not recommended as a priority intervention,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire had said.

The DOH also earlier allayed concerns that the government will adopt mass testing as a strategy against COVID-19 as it is not rational and science-based.

Vergeire then said that it is a recognized fact that resources in the country are limited.

However, Limpin said that the government should not forsake the public just because there is a tight budget.

“Hindi porket nasa gobyerno ako ay sabihin ko na tama na wala tayong budget, wala na tayong gawin. Hindi pwedeng ganon kasi marami tayong mga tao na nangangailangan ng tulong. So, ibig sabihin papabayaan lang natin sila? Kawawa naman itong mga taong ito,” she said.

(The government could not just say enough, we need not do anything,  we don't have budget.  It should not be like that because we have many people who need help. Does this mean we will just abandon our people?)

Meanwhile, amid the increasing number of COVID-19 cases which is believed driven by the Omicron variant, Limpin said that they would still recommend retaining Alert Level 3, particularly in the National Capital Region (NCR).

She said that the utilization rates of the hospitals is still bearable and most of the symptoms recorded were mild as compared to the Delta surge.

Infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante also shared on Wednesday that the period when the Philippines would experience a high number of new COVID-19 infections due to the Omicron variant might be shorter compared to that of the Delta variant.

The DOH on Thursday reported another record-high 34,021 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the Philippines' case load to 3,092,409.—LDF, GMA News