After its recommendation to implement a temporary travel ban on travelers from Hubei, the Department of Health said yesterday that it is looking at expanding the measure to other provinces of China.
“The Philippine government, upon the recommendation of the Department of Health, has issued a temporary travel ban covering all travelers from Hubei province of China,” said Health Undersecretary Rolando Enrique Domingo.
“The DoH will also be recommending the expansion of the travel ban coverage to more Chinese provinces as new information on the increasing number of cases per region arises,” he added.
Domingo noted that the World Health Organization still does not recommend the imposition of any travel or trade restrictions amid the declaration of 2019 novel coronavirus as public health emergency of international concern.
“However, the WHO always respects the sovereign power of member-states to impose measures aimed at protecting the health of its constituents,” said Domingo.
WHO Country Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said that they are still looking very carefully at the evidence and what are the social and economic implications it will have.
“Based on some facts that we already discussed, WHO does not favor at this point of time imposition of a travel ban. We are not recommending travel restrictions,” said Abeyasinghe.
“However, if member-states even after the declaration of public health emergency of international concern – decide to impose travel restrictions – they are obligated under the international health regulations to inform WHO on what those restrictions are and the justifications why such restrictions will play. Because WHO will then be obligated to share that with other member-states,” he added.
Abeyasinghe said that the WHO concluded that there is adequate evidence to classify the coronavirus outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern.
“I want to reiterate that the essence of this classification is to help member-states strengthen their preparedness and response capacity to deal with preventing and controlling this outbreak. This classification is largely about controlling the spread of the virus and the disease it causes,” said the WHO official.
“WHO remains committed to help preventing the spread of this virus and to mitigate its impacts on the Philippines and other member-states. It is mobilizing all its resources across country regional and headquarters level to facilitate that process.”
Domingo said that they have recorded 31 PUIs since they started monitoring early this month, including the 38-year-old woman from Wuhan, China, the country’s first confirmed case of the coronavirus.
“Five have been discharged but are still under strict monitoring. DoH also reported one confirmed case and one PUI mortality,” Domingo said.
The Health official said that they are still in the process of tracing the co-passengers of the patient. “Airlines have already given us the manifesto…Those who shared a flight will be notified,” said Domingo.
“DoH is assuring the public that the first case is isolated and being properly treated, and that contact tracing is being conducted in coordination with the Bureau of Quarantine. Stricter infection control measures are also being implemented in hospitals with PUIs both for patients and health workers,” he added. (Analou de Vera)
