Interior Secretary Eduardo Año sets the record straight: Not all people detained for violating quarantine will get tested for COVID-19. —FILE PHOTO/RAQUEL ARCE/Contributor
MANILA, Philippines—Not all detained quarantine violators will be tested for COVID-19 infection.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Tuesday said violators who have COVID-19 symptoms would only be tested and placed in government isolation.
“Sa simula pa lang ng proceso at nakita natin na merong symptoms [of COVID-19], of course, ite-test yan and then will be placed into our isolation facilities whether it is the national facility or LGU (Local Government Unit) isolation facilities,” Ano told reporters during the signing of the Joint Memorandum Circular on the guidelines on apprehension and investigation of persons for violation of health and quarantine regulations.
(Of course, if the detainee already has symptoms of COVID-19 at the start of the process, they will be tested.)
For quarantine violators without symptoms, Año said, “babantayan na lang natin yan (it is only a matter of monitoring them).”
“Ang importante sympre ay ang papano yung pag treat natin sa mga may sakit sa pandemic na ito,” Año said adding that the government is consistent with its PDITR approach.
(What matters is how we deal with those who have been infected by this pandemic.)
PDITR is Prevention, Detection, Isolation, Treatment, and Reintegration. Under the Department of Health’s Circular No. 0122 dated April 5, 2021, PDITR strategies include 14-day quarantine only for close contacts who remain asymptomatic. The same circular states that “patients with mild symptoms who have completed at least 10 days of isolation from the onset of illness and have been asymptomatic or clinically recovered for three consecutive days may already be discharged.”
As part of the same circular, a licensed medical doctor must certify or clear patients with suspected, probable, and confirmed COVID-19 cases for the patient to be discharged.