Sen. Grace Poe yesterday urged the government to require travelers from China to submit negative coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test results ahead of the scheduled lifting of Chinese travel restrictions on January 8.
In a statement, Poe said Malacañang should “anticipate another pressing issue on the need for COVID testing requirements” just like what other countries have already imposed amid the surge of COVID-19 cases in China.
“Other countries like the US, UK, France, Canada, Japan, South Korea, India, Israel, Morocco, Italy, and Spain have all reimposed their mandatory COVID tests and other rules on arrivals from China. The PH government should decide definitely on the matter and inform travelers beforehand,” Poe said.
She hit the government’s supposed lack of proactive measures on the matter and said this was “concerning amid the rapidly developing situation overseas.”
“Our experience in the past three years of the pandemic has shown that delayed and uninformed COVID-related policies and sometimes more deadly than the pandemic itself.
Now that we have reopened again, we need to build confidence that the Philippines is well-positioned and hopefully, now better informed in the fight against COVID,” Poe said.
But the Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said that even as COVID-19 cases continue its resurgence in China, existing minimum public health standards (MPHS) in the country remain effective.
It said that “imposing additional restrictions on incoming travelers or any revision in our protocols against COVID-19 for that matter should be science- and evidence-based.”
Instead, it said that increased border surveillance for those arriving from China are already adequate to control the entry of possibly sick travelers.
The DOH has issued Memorandum 2022-0578 ordering the intensified monitoring and implementation of border control protocols for incoming individuals, especially from China.
“As per our recent issuance, we have heightened border control and instructed strict implementation of health protocols in all of our borders and respective operating units.
Particularly for incoming vessels with history of travel from China, we have imposed meticulous process to assess vaccination status, exposure, and symptoms. This shall be met with strict implementation of quarantine and isolation protocols as warranted,” it said.
China, where the first case of COVID-19 was detected, has recently seen a rapid increase in cases, prompting several countries, including the United States, to heighten border control measures, including requiring negative COVID-19 tests for all travelers from mainland China.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the Bureau of Immigration is ready to implement possible restrictions for passengers flying in from China.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has yet to respond to Poe’s appeal.
On Monday, the DOH reported that the year 2022 ended and 2023 started with only 494 average daily COVID-19 cases for the period of December 26 to January 1, which is 39 percent lower than the 813 daily cases reported from December 19 to 25.
In total, the last seven days recorded a total of 3,458 COVID-19 cases.
The independent OCTA Research has also said that the COVID-19 positivity rate in the National Capital Region (NCR) dropped to 9.1 percent as of December 31, 2022 despite the numerous gatherings that occurred during the holiday season. Nineteen other provinces in Luzon also saw dropping positivity rates, the threshold of which was set at 5 percent by the World Health Organization.
