By Alec Go
President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday (April 21) said he cannot compromise Covid-19 protocols, in response to the appeal of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to immediately test returning Filipinos upon arrival and shorten their quarantine period.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said returning overseas Filipinos have “long missed their homes,” aside from economic concerns that they are encountering.
“They have to stay for almost 14 days in quarantine, notwithstanding the fact that after five days, they have been found to be negative. Bakit hindi natin sila pauwiin [Why don’t we send them home]?” Bello pointed out.
According to Dr. Edsel Salvana, an infectious disease expert and member of the Department of Health Technical Advisory Group (DOH-TAG), the timing of testing is crucial, because it usually takes three to five days after exposure before an individual tests positive.
“But based on the DOH data, even after the fifth day, there are still about 40% of people who test positive on the seventh day of arrival,” Salvana added.
He also said there are data that show it is possible to reduce quarantine duration from 14 days to 10 days, “provided that the person remained asymptomatic during that whole time.”
Dr. Marissa Alejandria of the advisory group added that the quarantine period can be relaxed to 10 days without testing as long as the travelers “remain asymptomatic and monitoring is strictly implemented.”
“At any period that the traveler or the OFW gets symptoms during that 10 days, then testing should be done. So the system should be in place,” she added.
This was supported by other members of the DOH-TAG, who proposed to review the testing protocol.
“We recommend that it be done at a later time, but the critical intervention should really be that quarantine should be strictly enforced, whether or not testing is done, [because] for as long as quarantine can be imposed, then we continue to keep our borders safe,” Dr. Anna Ong-Lim of DOH-TAG said.
In January, the government required arriving travelers to be tested after five days upon arrival and complete a two-week quarantine period, amid the implementation of tighter protocols due to the threat of new Covid-19 variants.
