‘New COVID-19 surge unlikely amid eased border restrictions’

MANILA, Philippines — Another surge in COVID-19 cases is unlikely even if the government eases the country’s border restrictions for foreign travelers.

For University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital Emergency Medicine chair Dr. Ted Herbosa, the easing of border restrictions may pose risks, but strict compliance with minimum public health standards could prevent COVID transmission.

“There are, indeed, risks if we ease border restrictions; other COVID variants might enter, and if you haven’t been infected by that particular variant, there’s a chance that you can really be infected,” Herbosa said in Filipino and English during the Laging Handa public briefing yesterday.

“But if you are vaccinated, perhaps, if you get infected, you could have very mild symptoms because that’s the promise of vaccination. And if we will wear face mask, there won’t be another COVID outbreak in the country even if we ease border restrictions,” he added.

The government is looking into the possibility of easing the country’s border restrictions and allowing the entry of all foreigners while the task of verifying the travelers’ medical status will be given to airline companies, according to the health expert.

Herbosa noted that at the PGH, four to five patients test positive daily, but most of them manifest mild symptoms and thus are advised to undergo home isolation.

Of the 1,000 patients currently admitted at the PGH, he said only 50 are COVID patients.

Emphasizing that the country is still nowhere near the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, infectious diseases expert Dr. Rontgene Solante has warned the public against the possible emergence of a more virulent variant of the infectious illness.

In an interview with “The Chiefs” aired on Cignal TV’s One News last Tuesday night, Solante advised the public to stay vigilant because the pandemic is far from over.

“We are not yet off the hook, even (if) cases are going down, there are still people who die of COVID,” he said.

“If there will be a variant coming in the next few months, which, hopefully, won’t happen, it will be really something more virulent and more transmissible than the BA.5,” he added.

Solante also explained that the statement made by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is in sight was based on the decreasing trend in the number of infections globally. – Delon Porcalla