DOH: Individuals who arrived from three African countries under tight watch

A health official on Friday said there are still no Omicron variant cases in the country.

During an online media forum, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire reported the government is performing intensive backtracing and re-testing of the individuals who arrived in the country from three African countries.

“We are doing our biosurveillance regularly and we’re also doing backtracing, nagre-retrospective sampling din tayo (we’re also doing retrospective sampling,” she said.

The government has strengthened its arrival protocols for countries not under the red list by extending the facility-based quarantine to five days for the vaccinated and seven days for the unvaccinated.

Moreover, they are required to complete the mandatory 14-day home quarantine.

To date, a total of 416 cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in 35 countries. READ MORE