The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has suspended the shortened quarantine period for fully vaccinated close contacts of probable or confirmed COVID-19 cases, it announced Wednesday, August 11.
This means from a shortened seven-day quarantine period, fully vaccinated individuals that have been in close contact with probable or confirmed COVID-19 cases will be quarantined for 14 days, it said.
If the fully vaccinated individuals remain asymptomatic after 14 days, their quarantine will end, the IATF-EID said.
If they manifest COVID-19 symptoms or test positive they will be brought to an isolation or treatment facility, it added.
Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator Rayfrado Diaz said the provincial government will comply with the order of the IATF.
Dr. Chris Sorongon, Bacolod Emergency Operations Center deputy for medical data and analysis, expects the new IATF-EID order to be discussed during the EOC huddle on Thursday.
“I guess the new IATF order is because of the COVID-19 Delta variant,” he added.
If one is hit by the Delta variant one should be isolated for 21 days because it can exist even after 14 days, he said.
One can be infected by the Delta variant in seconds unlike the original COVID-19 that is acquired after 15 minutes of exposure, he said.
The Regional IATF in consultation with all the governors and mayors of Western Visayas has suggested the setting up of a Philippine Genome Center branch in the region to enable the early detection f the various COVID-19 variants, he said.
It will be located in Iloilo in collaboration with the University of the Philippines Visayas and the Western Visayas State University Medical Center, he added.
The initial discussion is that the governors and mayors will contribute to the establishment of the about P10 million genome center, Sorongon said.*