Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Friday that there will be no changes to quarantine protocols for arrivals coming from Hong Kong despite the surge of COVID-19 cases reported in the city.
Duque told DZRH on Friday that the matter was not brought up during their Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) meeting on Thursday.
"Hindi pa rin magbabago 'yan. Dahil kahapon nung nag-IATF kami, wala naman kaming pinag-usapan ng aming expert panel na baguhin yung quarantine protocol," he said.
(There will be no changes. Because yesterday with the IATF, we did not discuss changing quarantine protocols with our expert panel.)
According to Duque, what matters is that arrivals from these areas are able to present proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 pre-departure test before getting into the country.
"Ang importante bakunado sila at meron silang 48-hour pre-departure test," he said.
(What is important is they are vaccinated and they have a 48-hour pre-departure test.)
In addition, the health secretary believes that these areas will impose tighter restrictions among themselves amid the new cases they are recording.
He also noted how the Philippines previously reported its own surge of COVID-19 cases, and how the National Capital Region (NCR) has vaccination protection, where first cases from international arrivals are usually reported.
"Galing tayo kasi sa surge natin. 'Di ba nag-surge tayo, saka meron kang vaccination protection na dito sa NCR mataas," Duque said.
(We also came from a surge. We also have a high vaccination protection here in the NCR.)
He made the remarks as Hong Kong reports surge of new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, where authorities there said that new infections multiplied by 60 times this month, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, the Philippines reported on Thursday 2,196 new COVID-19 infections. Active cases stand at 66,588 individuals.
