Gov't urged to rethink travel bans, implement tighter quarantine measures instead
MANILA, Philippines — The government should do away with its current restrictions on travel and instead apply stricter quarantine measures to all travelers arriving in the country to guard against emerging coronavirus variants, doctors said.
"Let’s just revise our guidelines and tighten our protocols regardless if a person came from a yellow or red country," said Dr. Anthony Leachon, a former special adviser to the National Task Force Against COVID-19.
Leachon was referring to the government's current policy of classifying countries and territories into red, yellow and green lists depending on the number of COVID-19 cases they are reporting.
Dr. John Jefferson Besa echoed Leachon's sentiments, saying that the present travel policies may no longer be effective, considering Omicron's rapid spread globally.
Besides, Besa said, the Philippines' present policy on travel disincentivizes countries and territories that accurately report their COVID-19 situation, as in the case of South Africa which faced global travel bans after it first reported the detection of the Omicron variant.
"They reported it early, they did their job, which is excellent, but at the end, this put them in a disadvantageous position," Besa said.
Leachon also said that the Philippines cannot simply ban inbound foreigners from countries where Omicron has been detected as the country needs some of these nations to keep its economic engine running.
As of December 31, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Spain currently under the “red” list from January 1 to 15, which means any foreign traveler coming from these countries within the last 14 days could not enter the Philippines.
But Filipinos from these countries can still return through repatriation flights.
‘Travel ban not sustainable’
Besa and Leachon said that travel restrictions are not sustainable as these could adversely affect livelihoods.
"You might actually slow down the arrival of variants to the country but we know that the treatment is vaccination and booster," Leachon said, adding that communication, isolation and contact tracing are also key in combatting the virus.
For Besa, evidence-based measures and excellent communication strategies are solutions to any emerging variants.
"There are probably more effective ways to communicate to the public how we need good ventilation, proper mask wearing, handwashing, [and] physical distancing," Besa said.
He also urged the government to revisit the alert level system to limit unnecessary gatherings and non-essential travel.
The country is dealing with a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks as new infections rose to its highest in two months.
As of January 4, the country has recorded 5,434 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total COVID-19 cases to 2,861,119.
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