Over a year into pandemic, IATF urged: Craft guidelines for ‘automatic travel bans’
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday questioned the lack of established protocols for imposing travel bans on countries with high COVID-19 cases or new variants after more than a year under community quarantine.
Malacañang on Tuesday night announced that a two-week entry ban on travelers from India as the South Asian nation grapples with a record-breaking wave of coronavirus cases and deaths.
Earlier that day, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, in an interview with CNN Philippines' "The Source," said that the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease had yet to discuss its latest steps on the variant first seen in India or B.1.617.
“I hope the DOH and IATF will not wait for the public clamor before they implement a travel ban. The decision is always very slow if not last minute," Hontiveros said in Filipino.
She also scored Duque for saying that the variant first seen in India is not one of concern, noting that some experts have said that the variant has increased infections among children.
“Children have no resistance to this double-mutation, nor can they be vaccinated. There are people lying down on the streets outside hospitals," she said in Filipino. "Is that not concerning to the health secretary? Will we wait until the situation here resembles India's? Travel bans should be imposed right away."
B.1.617 has been categorized by the World Health Organization as a “variant of interest.” It has not yet been detected in the Philippines, according to health authorities.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that a variant of interest might require enhanced sequence surveillance or epidemiological investigations to assess its transmissibility, severity of disease and whether currently authorized vaccines offer protection.
Other variants detected in the United Kingdom (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351), and Brazil (P.1) have been tagged as “variants of concern” because they are more contagious or might reduce antibody efficacy. The three variants are present in the Philippines.
"Rather than collecting variants, the IATF should have long ago established protocols and guidelines on imposing automatic travel bans based on the findings of other countries that are available to the public," Hontiveros said in Filipino.
The trouble with travel bans
It was only last December when miscommunication between government agencies over a broad travel ban, meant to keep out the more infectious COVID-19 variant first seen in the UK, left the public astounded.
READ: Confusion as Palace contradicts 3 agencies on broader travel ban | After miscommunication, broader travel ban on 20 territories finally sure
Earlier in 2020, major local airlines were forced to take matters into their own hands when the government failed to craft concrete guidelines a day after announcing a travel ban on a South Korean province.
Duque's refusal to implement a travel ban on China in the earliest days of the pandemic also caused over half the Senate to call for his resignation.
— Bella Perez-Rubio with a report from Gaea Katreena Cabico
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