Malacañang announced that the government's pandemic task force has deferred its decision to require mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 patients to undergo quarantine in facilities.

In a Facebook post, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases would be discussing the implementation of this new tack with local government units (LGUs).

"The IATF defers decision on mandatory facility quarantine pending consultations with LGUs," he said.

In July, the Palace urged mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases to voluntarily submit themselves to isolation facilities, saying it will be like a “paid for vacation” with “excellent facilities” as the government steps up its efforts against the pandemic.

Roque tried to entice patients by saying that their isolation will be like a paid vacation.

“We’re trying precisely to entice them with excellent facilities. It’s a paid-for vacation with air-conditioned facility,” Roque told ANC.

“It’s not as if they are brought to jails. They look like hotels! So it’s not as if they will be sent to solitary confinement. But there’s no other way,” he added.

He also said that there will be doctors and nurses that will attend to their needs while under quarantine.

Meanwhile, Roque said patients cannot refuse to be brought to isolation facilities since public health is the government’s priority.

“The legal basis to bring the asymptomatics and the mild cases without isolation facilities or with vulnerables living with them is still the inherent police power of the State. This is still promotion of public health,” he said.

He said in the same TV interview that the IATF made the order after the World Health Organization (WHO) had observed that the situation in the Philippines was worrying due to continuing COVID-19 transmission.