The Department of Health (DOH) said 89 individuals were identified as close contacts of the eight Covid-19 positive Filipinos who recently arrived in the Philippines from China.
“All close contacts are undergoing monitoring. They will be monitored everyday until they are able to complete our protocol for monitoring,” said DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire in a press briefing on Friday, Jan. 6.
A total of 19 close contacts were traced in the first flight, involving 18 foreigners and one Filipino. Seventeen of them are fully vaccinated, one partially vaccinated, and one unvaccinated.
In the second flight, 23 close contacts were found. Sixteen of them were foreigners and seven were Filipinos. All of them are fully vaccinated.
Twenty-seven close contacts were identified in the third flight and all of them are fully vaccinated Filipinos.
For the fourth flight, there were 20 close contacts. These include 12 foreigners and eight Filipinos. Vergeire said that 19 of them were fully vaccinated and one unvaccinated.
Of the 89, only one person has manifested symptoms so far, said Vergeire.
“The one showing symptoms has been subjected to testing and is currently isolated until we could get the result of the test,” said Vergeire.
On Jan. 4, the DOH reported that eight unvaccinated Filipinos, who came to the Philippines from China on Dec. 27, 2022 to Jan. 2, 2023, tested positive for Covid-19.
Additional restrictions for travelers from China?
The DOH said that there is no need yet to implement stricter border measures for travelers coming from China.
“What we are doing so far is to heighten our surveillance. We came out with an order bago mag umpisa ang bagong taon kung saan nagbigay tayo ng order sa ating mga border units na paigtingin ang ating surveillance (before the start of the new year wherein we instructed border units to intensify our surveillance). By doing that, we were able to capture through our usual protocols itong reported na nagpositibo sa (these reported positive individuals via) antigen who are partially or not vaccinated Filipino na pumasok na galing sa (from) China,” she said.
“Hindi po nakikita ng Department of Health at nainkonsulta rin natin ito sa mga eksperto yung pangangailangan natin na dagdagan ang restrictions (The Department of Health does not see and we have also consulted with experts about the need to add restrictions), specifically for China. We just go through our current protocols. And sa tingin natin, ito naman po ay epektibo hanggang sa ngayon (And we think, these remain effective),” she added.
Vergeire said that the situation in other countries should also be looked into.
“Alam natin na ang (We know that the) interaction between and among the different populations across the globe has happened already. Nakikita natin (We are seeing that) not just in China, but in other parts of the world, meron ng detected na mga ganitong variant (that various variants have been detected),” she said.