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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DOH not recommending COVID testing for teachers, students in limited in-person classes

DOH not recommending COVID testing for teachers, students in limited in-person classes

Published Sep 27, 2021 04:32 pm

The Department of Health (DOH) is not recommending the regular conduct of coronavirus testing among teachers, students and school personnel who will be taking part in the pilot implementation of the limited face-to-face classes.

(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the government would stick to its risk-based testing protocols, with only those with symptoms or exposed to an infected individual will be tested.

“We still follow our risk-based testing protocols,” Vergeire said during the virtual signing of the Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) for the pilot implementation of in-person learning setup on Monday, Sept. 27.

“We do not recommend the regular testing of students and even teachers and non-teaching personnel to be tested in order for them to be able to go to the schools,” she added.

The DOH and Department of Education (DepEd) signed a joint memorandum circular which provides guidelines for the implementation of limited face-to-face classes for basic education.

“What we are going to do would be to do it based on the risk-based protocol of the DOH that whenever there would be those children or even the teachers and the non-teaching personnel having symptoms is the time that we do isolation and then we do testing,” she explained.

The Health official said contingency plans are currently being drafted as a separate guidelines from the newly-signed memorandum circular in case an infection occurs while classes are ongoing.

Risk of infection among children

“We have to be reminded, the expectation would be that there would be really infections. We’re not saying that they will infected because they went to school because even if they don’t go to school the risk of being infected is there,” she said.

“So we are now anticipating that if ever there would be infections, we will be able to manage because of the protocols that we are going to institute,” she added.

The DOH official underscored the importance of observance in the minimum public health standards, as well as the immediate reporting of possible cases.

Related Tags

Department of Education covid-19 Department of Health (DOH) testing students teachers limited face-to-face classes
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