Former health adviser Dr. Tony Leachon asked the national government to consider implementing a total travel ban after the Philippines detected its first two cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
Leachon said the Philippines should imitate Israel, which closed its borders to all countries to prevent the spread of Omicron.
“Ako gagayahin ko ang Israel. Ang Israel wala talaga, total ban (We should adopt Israel’s policy. Israel implemented total ban),” Leachon said over Super Radyo dzBB.
“Maraming babalik sa atin tapos mild siya (Omicron) pero highly transmissible (Many Filipinos are returning. Omicron is mild but it is highly transmissible.),” he added.
Leachon also asked the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to review the quarantine policies for inbound travelers.
“Ako personally baka kailangan i-re-evaluate ng IATF. Kung ‘di man yung travel ban nila… yung tinatawag na quarantine,” he said.
(IATF should reevaluate its travel ban… If they can’t, they can reevaluate the quarantine.)
“For example sa Hong Kong, quarantine ay 21 days, kung ayaw mo magtravel ban,” Leachon added.
(For example, in Hong Kong, quarantine is 21 days if they don’t like the travel ban.)
Gov’t urged to implement total travel ban amid Omicron variant threat
He also reminded the government to ramp up its vaccination drive since many senior citizens are still unvaccinated.
Government data showed 4,019,029 million older Filipinos are fully vaccinated as of December 14.
Leachon said the Philippine economy is already recovering, so there is a need to protect the borders.
“Anyway, umaangat na ang ating ekonomiya dahil nakita natin galawan sa Metro Manila, so we protect our borders. (Our economy is already okay because we have seen movement in Metro Manila, so we protect our borders),” he said.
The Philippines has reported its first cases of Omicron variant, the Department of Health said on Wednesday.
DOH said one of the cases is a returning overseas Filipino who arrived from Japan on December 1 via Philippine Airlines flight number PR 0427.
The other is a Nigerian national who arrived from Nigeria on November 30 via Oman Air with flight number WY 843.
Visit our Facebook page for more news updates.