Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 29) — A modified general community quarantine will only be feasible if vaccines are readily available for a chunk of the population, and the Philippines has secured its borders from the emerging new variant of COVID-19, an expert said Tuesday.
In an interview with CNN Philippines’ The Source, OCTA Research Fellow Guido David recommended a few more steps before the entire country shifts to a looser quarantine status by the first quarter of 2021.
“[Declaring an MGCQ status] is very feasible especially if vaccines come in huge volume or numbers,” David said.
He added: “We don’t need to vaccinate everyone…but a significant portion, especially those who are frontliners, those who are out more often.”
David also called on the government to implement stricter border policies amid the threats of the new variant of the virus that first emerged in the United Kindfom.
“We are not sure of how it’s going to be spreading under our conditions. They said that it is at least 50% more transmissible. We have to prepare for that by securing our borders,” he said.
David added that a travel ban on other infected countries must also be imposed, and people entering the Philippines must further be monitored.
“We have a travel ban from UK, we should also consider more travel bans from countries such as South Africa. And to augment the travel ban, we should have strict policies in airports, and people coming in should be tested, monitored and quarantined.”
Earlier in the day, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the Philippines would ban travelers from countries that reported cases of the new COVID-19 variant starting Wednesday, Dec. 30 until Jan. 15. Returning overseas Filipino workers are exempted from the ban, but they will have to undergo mandatory quarantine for two weeks.
But this announcement was contradicted by Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque during his noontime briefing, saying that an executive order regarding the proposed travel restrictions on other countries is still being drafted by the Office of the President, and it may be released Tuesday or “in the next few days.”
Several other countries in Europe, Asia, South America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East have already restricted travel from the UK and other countries that have documented infections with the new variant.
Duterte announced Tuesday that Metro Manila will still be under GCQ from Jan. 1 to 31, along with Isabela, Santiago City, Batangas, Iloilo, Tacloban City, Lanao del Sur, Iligan City, Davao City, and Davao del Norte. The rest of the country will be under MGCQ.
The country is still expecting that vaccines will be available for rollout by the first quarter of 2021, as the government continues to negotiate with vaccine developers. These are China’s Sinovac, American mulinational corporations Johnson & Johnson as well as Pfizer, British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca, Russia’s Gamaleya Institute and India’s Novavax.
Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine was just approved for clinical trial in the Philippines as of Tuesday, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
