ANY changes in the country’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) travel protocols will be science-based, President Marcos Jr. said yesterday even as he said government would thoroughly discuss proposals to impose stricter requirements for travelers coming from China amid the recent surge in its cases.
The President, in an interview with the media in Beijing, said noted that incoming travelers to the Philippines are already required to present a negative coronavirus test before they depart from their country of origin, or if they have not been tested, they are mandated to be tested upon arrival in the country.
Such requirement, he said, is not limited to persons coming from China.
“I think it will (need to be) based on science… The approach that I’ve taken when it comes to what remains of our COVID response is to assess the actual risk factors. Is there really a risk? For example, if a Chinese national has tested three times already to be negative, and that was what, 48 hours before their travel, they should no longer be tested,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.
“But if they have not been tested, then we will ask for them to be tested before they get on the plane. Nothing new. That is what is being done now. And we’re not doing it only for China. We do it for other countries who we feel are, have a higher risk factor than the Philippines,” he added.
Marcos also expressed the belief that no country would allow their nationals to travel abroad if they are infected.
Meanwhile, infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said the current travel and health protocols in the country are enough.
Solante, during the Public Briefing program in the government network PTV-4, said current protocols have not changed even as other countries have started to require reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to travelers either prior or upon arrival to the host country.
Solante, however, said the government may subject unvaccinated travelers to COVID testing as they can easily be infected and spread the virus because they are more vulnerable.
“Sa tingin ko, sapat pa rin iyong protocol natin na kailangan lang natin ay makita at malaman iyong vaccination status ng mga visitors (In my opinion, the protocols are enough, and we just need to determine the vaccination status of the visitors),” he said.
The government should just ensure the safety of unvaccinated travelers and make sure that they are not infected.
Solante said the country continues to monitor the COVID situation not just in the country but also the developments in other countries.
He said the Philippines is monitoring four variants of concern including the XBB1.5 that is now affecting China. There is still no confirmed case of XBB1.5 case in the country.
SEQUENCING
After testing positive for COVID-19, the samples of the eight Filipinos from China will now be subjected to whole genome sequencing by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC), the Department of Health (DOH) said Thursday as it transmitted samples of the eight patients to the Center.
“All of the samples were already sent for sequencing yesterday (Wednesday), with the expected release of results by next week,” said the DOH.
On Wednesday, the DOH reported that there were eight Filipinos, who arrived from China between December 27, 2022 and January 2, 2023, who tested positive for COVID-19. Their arrivals came amid the heightened alert on travelers from China, where COVID-19 cases have been on a rapid surge recently.
The World Health Organization has been seeking detailed information regarding the circulating variants in China.
SUBVARIANTS
Locally, the DOH reported that the BA.2.3.20 Omicron subvariant has slowly emerged as the most detected lineage in recent batches of whole genome sequencing.
In its latest data, the health department said the BA.2.3.20 currently has the second highest number of Omicron subvariant cases in the country after BA.5.
“In the recent month (December), the BA.2.3.20 subvariant was the most detected variant among the samples sequenced,” said the DOH.
In the cumulative data, the BA.5 has 12,648 (26.01%) cases while there are 3,829 (7.87%) cases of BA.2.3.20.
It should be noted that the BA.5 was earliest detected in July 2020 while the BA.2.3.20 was first detected just last August 2022.
Other Omicron subvariants present in the Philippines are XBB with 921 cases, XBC with 597 cases, BA.4 with 325 cases, BA.2.75 with 37 cases, BQ.1 with 18 cases, BF.7 with 4 cases, and BN.1 with 3 cases.
In its latest whole genome sequencing results, the DOH said the BA.2.3.20 had the most cases with 81 and was followed by XBB with 43.
There were also 7 cases of the BA.5, 1 case each for BA.2.75 and XBC, while 11 cases were tagged as other Omicron subvariants.
The DOH said 165 samples have been sequenced by the PGC for the period of December 27, 2022 – January 2, 2023. — With Gerard Naval
