The Philippines plans to shorten the COVID-19 isolation period for more people, not just medical frontliners, an official said on Monday, as the country battled an uptick in COVID-19 infections powered by the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant.
To ensure that health facilities will have enough manpower, the government recently shortened the isolation period to five days for coronavirus-stricken medical workers who are fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, noted Presidential Adviser for COVID-19 Response Vince Dizon.
Close contacts no longer need to isolate if they have no COVID-19 symptoms, he said.
Dizon told a televised public hearing: “For now, that is only for healthcare workers. But our experts are studying the experience of other countries like the US and Europe, which shortened the isolation, especially for vaccinated people. That is being studied and hopefully, we will have changes in our policies in the next weeks.”
Several countries reduced their isolation period after the highly transmissible omicron COVID-19 variant spread globally, leading to worker shortages at airlines, schools, and businesses.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its move to cut in half to 5 days the isolation period after COVID-19 infection was based on science around transmission of the virus.
A review of 113 studies from 17 countries showed that most transmission occurs early in the course of infection, the CDC said in its website. It said the average period of infectiousness and risk of transmission was “between 2-3 days before and 8 days after symptom onset.”
The Philippines has detected 43 cases of the omicron variant. Its capacity for genome sequencing is limited.
396 positive,
Almost 400 Philippine General Hospital healthcare workers have tested positive for COVID-19, the PGH’s spokesperson said Monday.
According to Dr. Jonas del Rosario, the hospital reported 86 new cases on Sunday night.
“Just last night, more healthcare workers were tested, and we added about 86… so if you do the math, 310 plus 86, we’re almost close to 400 healthcare workers who got COVID,” Del Rosario told CNN.
“Some of them are probably towards the tail-end of their isolation, so we’re getting some of them, but it’s so fluid that every day, we are testing healthcare workers because some of them are really getting symptomatic,” he added.
Three to four staff get exposed for every COVID-positive healthcare worker. Due to this, he said the hospital would need augmentation.
265 COVID PGH patients.
Meanwhile, there are currently 265 COVID-19 patients admitted in PGH, of which around 25 percent are mild, 35 percent are moderate, and 20 percent are severe, and 10 percent are in critical condition.
“We still have severe to critical patients. We are a COVID-referral center so a lot of the mild cases who come to us, we actually do not admit, to reserve the beds for the ones who really need them,” he said.
At the Laging Handa briefing, National Task Force against COVID-19 special adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa said the PGH would open two more COVID-19 wards.
Due to the increasing COVID-19 cases, Herbosa said the hospital’s chances of treating non-COVID patients were getting slimmer.
Allowed to work
The PGH has clarified that only healthcare workers who don’t have COVID-19 are allowed to report for work.
PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas del Rosario issued the clarification after he was quoted that the hospital would allow its healthcare workers to
skip quarantine if they are asymptomatic of COVID-19 in a bid to keep an adequate manpower.
The official said those who have high-risk exposures but are asymptomatic are not placed under quarantine and may still report for
duty. However, once they become symptomatic, they will be pulled out and get tested.
The PGH, the country’s primary COVID-19 referral hospital, has modified its quarantine protocols for its exposed healthcare workers amid the rise in infections.
As for fully vaccinated health workers exposed to a case, the government cut the quarantine period from 7 days to no required
quarantine period as long as they are asymptomatic and wearing personal protective equipment.
Sta. Ana hospital
Around 97 of the healthcare workers in Sta. Ana Hospital in Manila have contracted COVID-19, and beds allotted for COVID-19 patients are now 67 percent occupied, the hospital’s medical director said.
“Our situation now is that 97 healthcare workers were inflicted by the virus, and mostly, there are—30 percent of them are nurses,” Dr. Grace Padilla said in an interview with ANC’s “Rundown.”
“We test them right away so that we can detect and limit the exposure of our other healthcare workers,” she said.
“Today we have a total of 101 confirmed patients admitted in the hospital and that makes 67 percent bed occupancy rate for our COVID beds,” Padilla said.
Shortened quarantine
A health expert has said the shortened isolation and quarantine period for fully vaccinated health workers infected with or exposed to COVID-19 is safe.
The Inter-Agency Task Force last Friday approved halving the isolation and quarantine period for fully vaccinated health workers to five days.
Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Rontgene Solante said the shortened quarantine period was decided upon to prevent paralyzing the health system amid the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country.
Medical technologists
A group representing medical technology practitioners who have contracted COVID-19 has appealed for the just and timely release of their benefits.
The Philippine Association of Medical Technologists has asked for the release of the hazard pay and special risk allowance of medical technologists working in the government and private sector.
According to PAMET president Rommel Saceda, most of the medical technologists with COVID-19 have mild or moderate cases. Medical technologists are the ones examining specimens taken during swab tests to check for COVID-19.
‘Reconsider new policy’
Meanwhile, the Akbayan party-list is urging the Department of Health to “take a step back” and reconsider a new policy that reduced the quarantine period for COVID-19 positive health-care workers.
“We firmly believe that this policy increases the risk to the entire health sector and threatens the chances of faster recovery for the public and the nation,” Akbayan second nominee Dr. RJ Naguit said.
The government issued a policy giving hospital infection prevention and control committees, and provincial health officers the authority to shorten the period of isolation for fully vaccinated
COVID-19 positive health workers who are asymptomatic and those who would show mild to moderate symptoms.