Still a red flag for ‘green lane’

The proposed “green lane” being pushed by the Department of Tourism (DOT) to “facilitate the entry” of foreign travelers who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is ill-timed at this stage. With the new mutations of the virus continuously coming out in various countries, it is prudent to put on hold the proposed DOT “green lane.” However, guidelines on how to effectively carry this out is indeed wise to do them now than later.

The World Health Organization (WHO) itself opposes such scheme of vaccine-based border controls until vaccines can be proven to give highly effective immunity to prevent a person from contracting COVID-19. For now, all the existing anti-COVID vaccines so far granted with emergency use listing (EUL) by the WHO are still in phase 3 clinical trials yet. As of this month, the WHO cited at least 13 different vaccines are being administered in COVID-impacted countries across the globe. This is because the WHO allows the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in each country to screen and issue their own Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) on anti-COVID vaccines still under phase 3 clinical trials.

But only five vaccine brands so far got their respective EULs from the WHO. These are, namely; the Pfizer/BioNtech; AstraZeneca; Janssen by Johnson & Johnson; the Moderna; and, the Sinopharm of China National Biotec Group.

In the Philippines, our own FDA has granted EUA to seven vaccine brands. These are, in this order of EUA issuance: Pfizer; AstraZeneca; Sputnik-V of Russia’s Gamaleya; Sinovac of China; Bharat Biotech of India; Janssen; and, Moderna.

According to WHO, all these COVID-19 vaccines are expected to provide at least some protection against new virus variants and are effective at preventing serious illness and death. The WHO explained these vaccines create a broad immune response and any virus changes or mutations should not make vaccines completely ineffective. However, the WHO continues to collect and analyze data on new variants of the COVID-19 virus from United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, and lately the double strain from India.

“While we are learning more, we need to do everything possible to stop the spread of the virus in order to prevent mutations that may reduce the efficacy of existing vaccines” the WHO clarified. The WHO reiterated its public advisory on physical distancing of at least one meter away from others; frequently cleaning of hands; wearing a mask; and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated places and rooms, or at least to open windows.

The DOT “green lane” proposal has been submitted last week to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) where Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat is a member. The DOT Secretary strongly endorsed the “green lane” as part of their agency efforts to spur the revival of the Philippine tourism with its great multiplier effects to engine the country’s economic recovery.Through this travel concept, the DOT cited, fully vaccinated individuals from overseas can visit the country for leisure once quarantine rules are relaxed and now that COVID-19 vaccinations have been stepped up globally.

“The green lane will pave the way for the reopening of our tourist destinations to leisure travelers who are now fully vaccinated. It will give the jobs back to many of our tourism workers and gradually revive the tourism industry under safe conditions,” Romulo-Puyat pointed out.

The IATF-MEID earlier ordered the DOT and several other government agencies to craft protocols for the proposed “green lane” specific to inbound international travel for fully vaccinated visitors. The IATF-MEID, is co-chaired by Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III.

Yesterday, the DOT Secretary bared another proposal to reduce the required quarantine period to just seven days for returning Filipinos and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who arrive in the country fully vaccinated.

Under prevailing IATF policy, there is a required 14-day quarantine; swab testing on the 7th day and release of the results on the 10th day of isolation in national government quarantine facility; and then turnover to the local government unit (LGU) to complete the 14 days of strictly monitored quarantine whether fully vaccinated or not.

“But we are still awaiting data from our experts that will definitively show vaccinated individuals are prevented from contracting the virus and therefore will no longer need to be quarantined,” Duque disclosed.

The IATF has created a Small Working Group to evaluate the proposed “green lanes.” This is composed of representatives from the DOT;  Department of Foreign Affairs; the Department of Trade and Industry; the Department of Information and Communications Technology; the Department of Transportation; the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration; the Bureau of Quarantine; the Bureau of Immigration and, a representative from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. who is the chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) and concurrently the designated “vaccine czar.”

“We are awaiting our experts’ recommendation on this (green lane) but personally, I assume policy should be consistently applied,” Duque asserted.

Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) president Jose Clemente III could not agree more. While supportive of the “green lane,” Clemente, a travel industry leader, warned giving advantage to vaccinated persons may only trigger discrimination against non-vaccinated individuals. Clemente urged the government to speed up the pace of vaccinations in the country before it puts in place a requirement that demands immunity from the virus.

The TCP chief is asking our policymakers to come up with an inclusive system that allows “travel for all” with the same freedom to move around. This should be extended to everyone, he stressed, as long as minimum health standards prescribed by the IATF and the WHO are strictly complied with.

For the meantime, the “green lane” proposal of the DOT remains still in the red-flag.