Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Monday admitted that there are travelers from India, or passengers with connecting flights from other countries and transiting at Indian airports, under quarantine and strict government monitoring but stressed that the B.1.617 variant that was first detected in India is not yet to be found in the Philippines.
“Once may mag (somebody turn up positive) sa samples nila (among the samples), we are going to subject this to the whole genome sequencing process,” Vergeire said. She did not mention the number travelers or passengers who are now under quarantine restrictions.
The health official also stressed that the government is strengthening the Covid-19 response and that revisions were made for the strict implementation of border controls, which hopefully would be “approved soon.” She did not elaborate further on the “revisions” for Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) approval.
Earlier, the IATF issued a resolution stating that all travelers from India or those with travel history to India within the last 14 days preceding arrival shall be prohibited from entering the Philippines beginning April 29, 2021 until May 14, 2021.
Not comparable
Vergeire also said that the situation in India should not be compared to the country.
“How far are we from what’s happening there? We cannot measure that. I guess it’s not really comparable especially population wise and setting wise. But now, we are beefing up our response. Hopefully, the revisions will be approved already on strict border controls to prevent further the entry of these variants,” she stressed.
Vergeire, however, warned, that it may still be possible that what happened in India may happen here, noting that the country is also experiencing a surge in cases.
“We have our peak in this increase in cases first week of April but we slowly strengthened our health-care system. There were also additional Covid beds, and we organized our health-care referral system,” she said.
Vergeire also reiterated the warning raised Secretary Francisco T. Duque III for the public to be cautious.
“Kasi pag titingnan natin ang nangyayari sa (If we try to look at) what is happening in India, [it] is happening also across the globe and even here in the Philippines,” she said, adding that the only difference is the “intensity.”
She also pointed out that the Covid-19 response on the ground is also being strengthened by local government units especially the Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treatment-Recovery (PDITR) strategy by establishing more testing laboratories, swabbing centers, and temporary treatment and monitoring facilities across the country.
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