NOTING that even a fully vaccinated person is still a “potential carrier” of Covid-19, Philippine Red Cross Chairman and CEO Senator Richard Gordon stressed the need for travelers to still undergo an RT-PCR test after the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) relaxes its restriction for interzonal travel for fully vaccinated persons.
“Kailangan patuloy pa rin ang ating pagtetest upang maihiwalay ang mga healthy individuals sa mga apektado ng Covid-19 [We still need to test to separate those infected from healthy individuals],” Gordon said, stressing that there is a high possibility of infecting the unvaccinated.
PRC, the leading organization for Covid-19 testing, has now conducted 3,382,981 tests nationwide, or 23 percent of the total tests done nationwide.
Covid log
THE total number of Covid-19 cases in the country rose to 1,445,832 after 4,114 additional infections were logged on Tuesday.
There were also 6,086 recoveries and 104 deaths recorded by the Department of Health.
Of the total number of cases, 3.4 percent (49,613) are active, 94.8 percent (1,370,923) have recovered, and 1.75 percent (25,296) have died.
Twenty-eight duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 22 are recoveries.
Moreover, 38 cases previously tagged as recoveries have been validated to be active cases and 63 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
All laboratories were operational on July 4, 2021 while nine laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.
Based on data in the last 14 days, the 9 non-reporting labs contribute, on average, 5.2 percent of samples tested and 6.7 percent of positive individuals.
Vaccinated, but still carrier
Gordon has reiterated that even a fully vaccinated person is still a potential carrier of Covid-19, and there is a high possibility to infect the unvaccinated.
“To beat this virus, we need to test regularly, isolate and treat the affected individuals, and vaccinate, so that people can safely return to work, can now go back to school, and the faster we can open our economy,” Gordon added.
Earlier, the IATF said fully vaccinated individuals need not present swab test results if they want to travel within the country.
Under the IATF Resolution 124-B, interzonal travelers who are fully vaccinated individuals are now only required to present proof of complete Covid-19 vaccination instead of Covid-19 test results.
For interzonal travel allowed by the task force, a fully vaccinated individual, regardless of age, may now present the vaccination card instead of complying with a local government unit Covid-19 testing requirement.
A person is considered fully vaccinated after at least two weeks since receiving the second shot of a two-dose vaccine or the first of a single-dose brand.
Image courtesy of Clinton Ramos/Valenzuela City PI