Things can go south fast
Countries like the United States, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Italy and India have required travelers arriving from China to present negative Covid-19 test results.
The measures are in view of the seeming runaway Covid-19 crisis affecting many Chinese cities with reports of hospitals and crematoriums there being overwhelmed.
Going one step further, South Korea has mandated travelers from China to be tested before departure and upon arrival in the country. Meanwhile, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control prescribed PCR tests for those coming from mainland China this January.
Morocco has probably imposed the harshest measure so far by totally shutting its borders to arrivals from China.
The Philippines? The Department of Health said on Sunday that the country is on “heightened alert” but stopped short of following
“Morocco has probably imposed the harshest measure so far by totally shutting its borders to arrivals from China.
“There’s no reason for us to be caught flat-footed this late in the game of getting out of the Covid pandemic.
the examples of the aforementioned countries in requiring tests for those coming in from China.
The Bureau of Immigration said it is ready to implement travel restrictions for passengers from China. That statement alone should be a hint that there are none so far other than what protocols are prevailing before the Chinese outbreak made the news.
According to DoH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire, the department’s directive to the Bureau of Quarantine and relevant offices is to intensify the monitoring and implementation of border protocols for incoming individuals, including those from China, at all ports of entry.
Kind of vague this statement by the DoH is compared to solid and actionable pronouncements made by many countries in ensuring that Covid cases from China do not spill over into their territories. All countries have the sovereign right to impose measures to protect their respective citizens and imposing travel restrictions is just one of them.
As such, the Philippine task force in managing Covid, which includes the DoH, should seriously consider requiring Covid tests for those arriving from China as many countries are now doing. As of this writing Monday, there were no statements to that effect coming from the task force or the DoH.
Our health officials cannot rest on the laurels earned during the Duterte administration on the Philippines’ superb management of the Covid spread even compared to such first-world countries like the US, where over a million had died from the virus.
If there’s one thing many Filipinos had been thankful for, it’s that Covid-19 hit the world when Rodrigo Roa Duterte was the country’s President.
He was decisive and his government was quick, too, in reacting to global and local developments.
Duterte brought in the vaccines even if he had to borrow money to buy them or cajole friendly nations and world organizations to donate jabs to the Philippines. His task force also put in place protocols that worked.
In terms of total infections and mortality rate from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic vis-a-vis those of other countries, the Philippines’ management of the contagion had been stellar under Duterte. It could still go south, though, as what’s being seen in China right now.
While it’s reassuring to read Vergeire’s pronouncement that the country is well-prepared for cases that “would always happen” as the protocols are already in place and 94 percent of Filipinos are already vaccinated, the development in China calls for additional measures.
Come to think of it, the 94 percent primary vaccination rate is nothing to crow about if we consider the still less-than-desirable booster jab percentage in the country amid the already established science that the efficacy of the jabs wanes over time.
There’s no reason for us to be caught flat-footed this late in the game of getting out of the Covid pandemic.