The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday reminded travelers, specially returning overseas Filipinos (ROF) to provide accurate contact details and travel history, or face penalties stipulated under Republic Act 11332, or the “Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act.”
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire issued the reminder amid the DOH’s efforts to locate seven more travelers from South Africa where the origin of the more transmissible variant with multiple mutations was traced. DOH reported earlier it has tracked down one of the eight travelers from South Africa.
These seven are all ROFs Filipinos, three of whom gave an agency number and not a personal number; one an incorrect number; one incomplete number and two uncontactable.
“Yes [giving of wrong information is punishable under] RA ng [of the] notifiable diseases [law] and’‘yung [the] health declaration forms once we sign it are attested dapat [it should] be true,” Vergeire said.
The law aims to protect people from public health threats through the efficient and effective disease surveillance of public health concern.
It also recognizes the disease surveillance and response systems of the DOH and its local counterparts as the first line of defense against epidemics or any events that may pose as health threats to the public.
Any person or entity found to have violated the mentioned law shall be penalized with a fine of “not less than P20,000 but not more than P50,000 or imprisonment of not less than 1 month but not more than 6 months, or both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the power court.”
On Monday, while Vergeire said that there has been no detection of the Omicron variant yet in the country, she admitted that the agency is still tracing the whereabouts of eight more travelers from South Africa who arrived in the Philippines between November 15 and 29.
Vergeire said that the travelers being located are part of the 253 travelers from South Africa.
Ready for Omicron
Meanwhile, Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Chairman Sen. Richard Gordon said that the country’s foremost humanitarian organization has made preparations to combat the Omicron variant.
Gordon assured PRC is accelerating its testing and vaccination rollout as well as readying its Emergency Field Hospitals and medical tents as the threat of the Omicron variant looms.
At the height of the Covid-19 surge last April 2021, PRC opened a 100-bed capacity Emergency Field Hospital at the Lung Center of Philippines and medical tents at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute to serve as emergency ward extensions to cater to Covid-19 positive patients.
To date, PRC has served more than 8,744 patients. “Dapat lagi tayong handa. Kaya ipinapaalala ko ang [We should be ready. I am reminding you of the ] 4Ps. We must Predict, Plan, Prepare and Practice,” Gordon said, stressing that they are gearing up even there is still no Omicron variant detected in the country.
Gordon has also directed the PRC to prepare personal protective equipment (PPEs) especially N95 face mask as the gear offers better protection if Omicron hits Philippine shores.
Currently, PRC has 45 medical tents deployed in 32 hospitals to help mild to moderate Covid-19 cases. Gordon vowed to continue its operation as long as people need additional health-care facilities.