DOH considers extending travel ban to cover other Chinese provinces
by Analou De VeraAfter its recommendation to implement a travel restriction on travelers coming from Hubei province, the Department of Health (DOH) said it is looking at expanding the recommendation 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,” Health Undersecretary Rolando Enrique Domingo said in a press briefing Friday.
“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 (WHO) still does not recommend the imposition of any travel or trade restrictions amid the declaration of 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV-ARD) as a 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,” Domingo added.
WHO Country Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said that they are still looking “very carefully at the evidence” as well as social and economic implications.
“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,” Abeyasinghe said.
“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.”
Public health emergency of international concern
Abeyasinghe said the WHO concluded that there is “adequate evidence” to classify the 2019-nCoV-ARD 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,” Abeyasinghe said.
“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.”
Persons under investigation (PUIs)
Domingo said 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 2019-nCoV-ARD.
“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 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.”
“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.
Domingo on Thursday night confirmed to Manila Bulletin that the patient, who is being isolated at the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila, was on flights of both Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific.
Don’t compare
Abeyasinghe said the number of cases of 2019-nCoV ARD should not be compared to the cases recorded for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
In a report from Agence France-Presse last Wednesday, the number of 2019-nCoV-ARD cases in China has already reached 5,974 cases, surpassing the 5,327 cases of SARS during the latter’s epidemic in 2002 to 2003.
“Our position is that you should not compare numbers because in the case of SARS we have not identified the pathogen, and we did not have a test for more than a month. So we really did not know how fast it was spreading, we did not have the numbers to confirm,” Abeyasinghe said.
“But in this case (2019-nCoV-ARD), because Chinese authorities were able to identify this virus and rapidly share the genome and testing protocols, we have been able to test a lot of sick people and people with mild symptoms, and that has provided the ability for us to confirm a large number of infections.”
Abeyasinghe noted that the figures should not be compared as these “would seem out of context.”
“You have to take into consideration what has happened on the ground over the period in between,” he said.