Malacañang assured the public Monday, Nov. 29 that it was acting "with a sense of urgency" on the threat of the Omicron variant despite the government's decision not to place Hong Kong on the red list.
"We are acting with a sense of urgency. Agad naman pong nagdedesisyon ang IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force), agad naman pong kino-convene, kinu-konsulta ang ating mga experts (The IATF decides quickly, it convenes immediately and consults our experts)," Cabinet Secretary and Acting Presidential Spokesperson Karlo Nograles said during a virtual press conference.
Nograles, who also serves as IATF spokesperson, was asked to react to a reported plea from Dr. Tony Leachon to act with urgency in connection with imposing restrictions on inbound flights from Hong Kong.
Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has already reported multiple cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). So far, little is known about the new COVID-19 mutation.
Hong Kong remains on the IATF's yellow list of countries for COVID-19, indicating that it is of "moderate risk". However, there are some quarters that want it to be categorized as "high risk", or on the red list, due to the threat of Omicron.
Nograles explained during the presser why Hong Kong remains on the yellow list.
"Napag-desisyunan po namin sa IATF, yung pagre-red list ng mga countries will be dependent kung mayroon na pong local case ng Omicron doon sa bansa na yun (We in the IATF have decided that the red listing of countries will depend on whether or not that country has a local case of Omicron).
"Kung imported case at hindi lokal case ng Omicron (If it's an imported case of Omicron), then we have the option of retaining the status of the country, whether yellow or green," the Palace official explained.
This notwithstanding, Nograles said there are additional factors to consider.
"Pwede pong ma-override yan kung sa tingin ng IATF at ng mga experts natin ay hindi ganoon kaganda ang nakikita natin na surveillance activities na ginagawa doon sa bansang yun at his ganoon kaganda at hindi tayo ganoon ka-confident sa mga ginagawa nilang mga genome sequencing, at hindi rin tayo confident sa pagde-detect ng local cases ng Omicron sa bansang iyon (The decision could be overridden if the IATF and our experts think that the surveillance activities in the subject country aren't very good, and if we're not confident about the genome sequencing and detection of local cases of Omicron in that country)," he noted.