SIX individuals with travel history to India who arrived in the country prior to the travel ban have tested positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said swab samples from the sick travelers have been sent to the Philippine Genome Center for sequencing and determination if they are infected with the Indian (B.1.617) variant or other variants.
Vergeire said the six were among the 110 people who arrived in the country prior to the imposition of the travel ban that took effect on April 29 and will last until May 14.
“There were 110 of them that arrived, quarantined, and tested. Six turned out positive,” said Vergeire.
Vergeire said health authorities are also still looking for six other travelers from India. “We will provide more information as soon as we have more details,” she said.
The Philippines banned the entry of travelers from India as well as those with recent travel history to the South Asian country from April 29 to May 14 after COVID-19 cases there surged to record-breaking numbers, which health experts have said were likely due to the “double mutation” Indian variant.
But the ban exempted passengers already in transit or those who arrived before April 29 from India. They are, however, required to undergo strict COVID-19 quarantine and testing protocols.
Yesterday afternoon, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea issued a memorandum banning the entry of all travelers coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka from May 7 to May 14 in a bid to prevent the entry of the Indian COVID-19 variant to the country.
The memorandum said travelers who have been to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka within 14 days preceding their arrival in the Philippines shall be prohibited from entering from 12:01 am of May 7 to 11:59 pm of May 14.
All travelers from the four countries who will arrive before May 7 are mandated to undergo a facility-based 14 day quarantine regardless of the result of their Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction test.
Filipinos and foreigners transiting through India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh shall be allowed entry to the Philippines provided that they stayed in the airport the whole time and were not cleared for entry into these countries by immigration authorities. They are also not required to complete a full 14-day facility-based quarantine provided that they will comply with existing testing and quarantine protocols of the national government.
Specimens of all travelers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh that will yield positive results shall be subjected to whole genome sequencing and all close contacts shall undergo a facility-based 14 day quarantine.
VARIANT CASES
As to the other COVID-19 variants already in the Philippines, the DOH said majority of them were detected in the National Capital Region (NCR) and in the Calabarzon Region.
“Bulk of the cases for both the United Kingdom and South African and P.3 (Philippines) variants are in NCR and Region 4A,” said Vergeire.
In Metro Manila, there are 358 UK variant cases, 602 South African variant cases, and 39 cases of the P.3 variant cases.
For Region 4A, there are 145 UK variant cases, 121 South African variant cases, and 6 cases of P.3 variant cases.
Nationwide, there are 948 UK variant cases, 1,075 South African variant cases, and 157 P.3 variant cases.
There have also been 2 cases of the P.1 (Brazilian) variant detected in the Philippines.
Asked if the Philippines is already seeing a community transmission of any COVID-19 variant, Vergeire answered in the negative.
“Even the World Health Organization, until now, cannot give that classification because they still need further study so that we can be able to determine if there is community transmission from these different types of variants,” said Vergeire.
TESTING
Vergeire said the DOH will propose to the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) that incoming travelers be tested for COVID-19 seven or eight days after their arrival.
“For us to have accurate test results, and we can immediately isolate those with symptoms, we made this recommendation to test on the 7th, 8th day,” said Vergeire.
Under the current testing protocol, all incoming travelers are subjected to COVID-19 testing only on the 5th day from their arrival.
“Based on evidence, on the 7th and 8th day, those (days) have the highest percentage that a person who has the disease might turn positive. The viral load is at its highest on the 7th, 8th day,” she explained.
In a related development, the DOH backed the observation of contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong that there is a need to improve contact tracing efforts in the country.
“We recognize the fact that, among our different strategies, contact tracing is among the weakest response,” she said, adding: “One thing we can tell you, many could be undetected, that’s a possibility.”
She, however, pointed that the undetected ones are more likely those that are asymptomatic, and not those with symptoms.
On Tuesday, Magalong admitted that the “weakest link” among the government pillars in the fight against COVID-19 is contact tracing after the efficiency ratio dropped to 1:2, a far cry from the standard ratio of 1:15.
