Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 11) — The country’s pandemic response task force on Wednesday suspended the policy that allowed shorter quarantine period for fully vaccinated close contacts of probable or confirmed COVID-19 patients.
They now have to complete 14 days of quarantine from the date of exposure to the patient, according to the new rule.
On July 2, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) issued a resolution that required fully vaccinated close contacts to undergo a seven-day quarantine if they are not showing flu-like symptoms.
“The decision to temporarily suspend said protocol is part of the continued implementation of proactive measures to slow down the surge in COVID-19 cases and to stop the further spread of the variants,” the Inter-Agency Task Force said in a statement.
Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire confirmed that the proposal came from health experts amid the threat of the more transmissible Delta variant.
“Napagkasunduan po natin base sa mga ebidensiya ngayon na lumalabas na iyong viral load po ng isang bakunado ay the same lang with that of the unvaccinated kapag Delta variant po ang nakapanghawa sa kanya,” she said.
[Translation: We agreed that evidence shows that the viral load of a vaccinated person is the same compared to an unvaccinated person infected with the Delta variant.]
