Shorter time for quarantine for returning Filipinos vaccinated in Philippines

CEBU, Philippines —  The government has reduced to seven days from 10 days the mandatory quarantine period for Filipinos who return from abroad but have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the Philippines.

This is stipulated in Resolution No. 119 released by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

This new rule applies at any port of entry but does not cover foreign nationals, overseas Filipino workers, and Filipinos who have been fully vaccinated in foreign countries, said presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.

“They have to undergo the regular quarantine and testing protocols, which is, to complete a 10-day facility-based quarantine,” Roque said.

Under the new rule, the seven-day period begins on the day of the arrival. The Bureau of Quarantine will monitor the individual for COVID-related symptoms at the facility.

If symptoms manifest, the individual will be made to undergo Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test. If not, he or she can leave the facility after seven days with a certificate from BOQ that will state the bearer’s vaccination status.

An individual can be considered fully vaccinated if he or she has received the second dose in a two-dose series, or two weeks after having received a single-dose vaccine.

Vaccines administered to the individual must be in the Philippine Food and Drug Administration Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) list or given through a Compassionate Special Permit (CSP).

A fully vaccinated individual must carry his or her vaccination card, “which will be verified prior to departure, and must be presented to a Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) representative for re-verification at the Department of Transportation (DoTr) One-Stop Shop upon arrival,” Roque said.

Cebu situation

Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) is yet to come up with its position on the

protocols implemented by the Cebu provincial government on arriving overseas Filipino workers and returning Filipinos, which the IATF has claimed violate its current quarantine and testing protocols.

President Rodrigo Duterte directed DOH to ‘critique’ the rules following a discussion with Governor Gwendolyn Garcia.

Garcia decided earlier to allow travelers to forego quarantine procedures upon arrival if they test negative in RT-PCR on the day of their arrival at the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

DOH spokesperson, Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, said the department is still finalizing its recommendation to the President despite the deadline set last Thursday.

“Ngayon po, we are just finalizing our memo for the President, the MFP which will contain our recommendations, evidences that we will be attaching para po makapagbigay linaw, at makapagbigay ng tamang rekomendasyon sa ating Presidente,” Vergeire said in a virtual presser Friday.

For now, she said, DOH abides by the IATF guidelines.

“Ang Department of Health, of course, is yung pong napagkasunduan sa IATF which of course is based on evidence, based on Science and ito po ang ating sinusulong na maitupad sa lahat ng rehiyon sa ating bansa, para po ma-break natin ang chain ng transmission nitong Covid 1,” Vergeire said.

No violation

Garcia said earlier her guidelines were not defiant to the IATF protocols.

“The way I see it, Mr. President, we are in fact innovating to make it more effective for us… In fact, in Cebu, we have made it even stricter in the sense that it is not a single swab; we swab twice,” Garcia told Duterte during their meeting.

Under the IATF protocols, arriving overseas Filipinos must be quarantined at the quarantine hotel subject to RT-PCR test on the seventh day.

The province’s protocols, on the other hand, require double swabbing for Cebuano OFWs and ROFs. The first one is upon arrival wherein the individual will be sent home for home quarantine if he or she tests negative. On the seventh day, he or she will be swabbed again.

Garcia emphasized the “humanitarian aspect” in her decision, saying the OFWs “do not come home to have a good time.”

“Sometimes, they do not even have enough cash to pay for the ticket, they borrow money and do cash advance. And they come home, that’s because there’s a reason. It is in time of emergency. It’s either there’s a member of the family who is very sick or someone has died,” Garcia reasoned. – JMO  (FREEMAN)