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PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte approved on Saturday, December 26, 2020, the recommendation to extend the temporary ban on incoming flights from the United Kingdom (United Kingdom) for two weeks in an attempt to block the new Sars-CoV-2 variant.
The president also approved the strict implementation of the mandatory 14-day quarantine regardless of RT-PCR results for all passengers from countries with confirmed cases of the new strain of the virus, such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.
However, the Secretary of the Department of Health (DOH), Francisco Duque III, said that travel restrictions for these countries will only be considered if there is community transmission of the new variant.
Duterte also approved the recommendation to immediately implement the Advanced Passenger Information System to strengthen border controls against the new strain of the virus.
Instead of 60 days, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) now has only 20-30 days to craft the implementing rules and regulations.
The suspension of incoming flights from the UK, which went into effect at 12:01 am on December 24, 2020, was originally scheduled to last only until December 31, 2020. The UK includes Great Britain and Ireland from the North.
This went on for two weeks as a new Sars-CoV strain, first detected in the UK, continued to spread rapidly.
“In fact, I tell you there is no way of knowing how this would evolve. It’s evolving, it’s a new strain, but how far, how fast is the progression, wala pa tayong alam (we don’t know yet), ”Duterte said during a meeting with infectious disease specialists on Saturday, December 26.
“So the best way is to really play safe. You put a brake on their journey. That’s good … Maybe that includes that, ”he added.
Duque said 79 arrivals from the UK before 12:01 a.m. on December 24 were still allowed in, but had to undergo a 14-day quarantine even with a negative polymerase chain reaction test with transcription. reverse (RT-PCR).
He said genomic sequencing was underway to identify whether the infections among these newcomers were caused by the new strain.
It said the 79 passengers were taken to the New Clark City quarantine facility in Tarlac for their mandatory 14-day isolation.
Duterte also approved the recommendation of the Secretary of Justice, Menardo Guevarra, to accelerate the implementation of the Advance Passenger Information System.
On December 15, the President issued an executive order ordering the adoption of the system, authorizing the BI to obtain advance information from various airlines and carriers about the origin of their individual passengers, their origin flight, their connecting flight and their flight from transit, among others.
However, Guevarra said this has not been implemented due to a lack of implementation rules. The BI had 60 days to formulate the rules.
The president of Justice suggested that the period of 60 days granted to the BI be reduced to 20 to 30 days.
“So as soon as the implementing rules and regulations are in place, Mr. President, we can put this into operation immediately and the health risks that may be associated with passengers coming not only from the UK, but also from other infected countries can be properly approached even before the passenger boards the flight that arrives in the Philippines ”, said Guevarra.
Meanwhile, Duterte said he will meet with experts again on December 28 to reassess the situation and the risk posed by the new Sars-CoV-2 variant.
He said the government will calibrate its response based on the situation in other countries.
The president was responding to the suggestion of the executive director of the Philippine Health Research and Development Council, Jaime Montoya, to strengthen genomic surveillance.
Montoya said that genomic sequencing is currently limited to people traveling from the UK.
He said this should be strengthened to include high-risk groups, such as groups with more cases and groups with greater severity and deaths, “because these are actually indicators of probably new variants emerging in the Philippine population.”
The Director of the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM), Celia Carlos, also suggested that only swab samples that test positive for Sars-CoV-2 be sent to the Philippine Genome Center, RITM or the National Institutes of Health of the University of the Philippines to sequence and optimize resources.
Sars-CoV-2 causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), which has killed more than 1.75 million people worldwide since it was detected in China in December 2019. More than 80.3 Millions of people have been infected as of December 27, 2020, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. (Marites Villamor-Ilano with Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo / SunStar Philippines)
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