IATF may further ease Covid border restrictions, says DOH’S Vergeire

DEPARTMENT of Health (DOH) Officer in Charge Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Tuesday said that the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) is set to meet in the coming weeks to discuss options on easing of border restrictions.

“During the first IATF, we have agreed that we will have our Technical Working Group of the IATF to already discuss the border restrictions in the country, whether it be foreign, whether it be national,” Vergeire said in a news briefing.

“Titingnan natin kung base sa safety protocols natin ay pwedeng nating ma-ease some of those restrictions [We will see if based on our safety protocols, we can already ease some of the restrictions],” Vergeire added.

Vergeire also said that the directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is to be able to open up more sectors and ease border restrictions, hence the need to amend or rescind the Executive Order (EO) 168 which created the IATF.

Among the functions of the IATF, under the EO 168, is to prevent and/ or minimize the entry of suspected or confirmed patients with emerging infectious diseases (EID) into the country through rigid screening and identification of EID suspects, and the institutionalization of a surveillance, alert, and quarantine system in all ports of entry.

“Pag-uusapan ito lahat sa [We will talk about all of these in] IATF because we need to be able to rescind

kung saka-sakali, o amyendahan itong [if ever or amend this] EO 168 for us to relax these restrictions,” she said.