The Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) lamented the shortened quarantine period for medical frontliners exposed to coronavirus disease (COVID-19), saying it will "further accelerate the proliferation and spread of infection."

The Department of Health, through the Circular 2022-002 Section E or the "Amended Quarantine Isolation Period for Healthcare Workers as Contingency Measure for Sustaining Healthcare Capacity," authorized the Hospital Infection Prevention and Control Committees and Provincial Health Officers to shorten the duration of isolation and quarantine of fully vaccinated health workers in consideration of their healthcare capacity.

DOH ordered an isolation period of 10 days for the vaccinated and unvaccinated COVID-19 positive individuals, while a shortened isolation protocol of five days was ordered for health workers infected with COVID-19.

In a statement, AHW President Robert Mendoza said shortening the duration of COVID-19 positive health workers will "pose further danger to the health and safety of health workers as well as the patients."

"DOH cannot simply assume that symptoms will appear immediately. Health workers with high-risk exposure to COVID-19 with or without symptoms should be quarantined and undergo an RT-PCR test. A free, regular, and mandatory RT-PCR test should be provided to all health workers in every high-risk exposure to COVID-19," Mendoza lamented.

"The DOH Circular is completely inhumane and unjust to us health workers who are risking our lives in battling the infectious and deadly virus. DOH, IATF, and the Duterte government are not really sincere in addressing the sad plight of health workers. They called us modern-day heroes but in reality, we were treated as modern-day slaves as they continuously exploited us in this time of COVID-19 pandemic," he added.

Mendoza said that reducing the days of quarantine of infected health workers "will never solve the chronic and acute problem of understaffing of health workers who for the longest time are burned out, had meager wages, and felt betrayed by the unjust treatment of this government by not releasing the COVID benefits of health workers."

He also called on the government to implement mass hiring of regular health workers with "living wage" as a solution in sustaining the healthcare capacity of public hospitals.

"Definitely a shortened duration of isolation and quarantine protocol is not the solution," Mendoza reiterated.

The Department of Health on Saturday, Jan. 8, clarified that COVID-positive individuals who are asymptomatic or have mild or moderate symptoms still need to isolate for 10 days regardless of vaccination status.