Persons who are asymptomatic and have been fully-vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are no longer required to undergo quarantine should they be exposed to a COVID-19 positive individuals, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday, March 1.
During the DOH's media forum, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that this was stated in the resolution released by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for areas under Alert Level 1.
Metro Manila as well as 38 other areas, will be placed under Alert Level 1 from March 1 to 15.
"Kapag kayo ay asymptomatic, ibig sabihin walang sintomas, close contact kayo ng isang positibong indibidwal, at kayo ay fully-vaccinated, wala na pong kailangan o zero days for quarantine (If you are asymptomatic, which means you have no symptoms, and you are a close-contact of a COVID positive individual but you are fully-vaccinated, there is no need or zero days for quarantine)," she explained.
But she reminded that these individuals would still need to monitor themselves and should they feel any symptoms, they should immediately isolate themselves, call their local government, so they can be guided on what they need to do.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Edsel Salvana said that there were two reasons why they decided to remove the quarantine requirement for those who were exposed to positive individuals.
"Unang una, sa Alert Level 1 napaka baba na talaga ng number of people who have COVID-19. So, the overall picture is that 'yung risk na yun, mas mababa (First of all, under Alert Level 1, the number of people who are infected with COVID-19 is very low. So the overall picture is that, that risk is very low as well)," he said.
"Pangalawa, is that kung bakunado po tayo, mas mababa po yung tsansa na mahawa tayo at mas mababa rin yung tsansa na kahit makalusot sa atin, makahawa tayo ng ibang tao and on top of that sa Alert Level 1, mataas na rin yung level ng vaccination (Second is if we're vaccinated, the chance of infecting others or if the virus manges to get through and we infect others is low, and on top of that under Alert Level 1, the vaccination level is high)," he added.
Salvano also stated that it's been hard for others who need to report to work physically to isolate or quarantine themselves since they will not get paid if they don't do so.
He explained that the rationale of this move is that the risk has gotten much lower and that there is a safety margin especially if someone is vaccinated against COVID-19 and that there is a high level of vaccination in the community.