The Philippines’ Department of Health assured that it will impose tighter border controls to ensure that the Lambda Covid-19 strain will not enter the country.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III stated that the variant, which remains to be a “variant of interest” as of posting time, originated in Peru and has spread across 35 Latin American countries.
He assured that it has not yet been detected in the Philippines based on the genome sequencing of the Philippine Genome Center from 7,000 samples.
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Duque also noted that the Lambda variant has not yet been classified as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization.
“So iyan po ang paigtingin natin, ang border control – ibig sabihin po nito 14-day quarantine – 10 in the government identified quarantine facility, test on the 7th day and completion of the remaining 4 days in their home, LGU (local government unit) or residents and of course iyong bio-surveillance natin na ginagawa ng Philippine Genome Center,” Duque said.
He emphasized that all returning Filipinos and overseas Filipino workers must follow strict quarantine protocols, wherein they will undergo quarantine for at least 10 days and take a swab test on the seventh day since their arrival, according to reports from the Philippine News Agency.
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Duque noted that border controls have so far been effective, particularly against the highly infectious Delta variant with no local case or local transmission recorded yet in the Philippines.
“So, kaya kinakailangan talaga bantayan po natin ito dahil baka biglang maging variant of concern. So, ano ang gagawin natin? Patuloy na paigtingin ang ating border control,” he said.
