The Bohol Medical Society(BMS) denies having given its go-signal to shorten the length of time for the quarantine period from 14 days to five (5) days to be applied to returning locally stranded individuals (LSI) and overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
This was the position of the group expressed in a statement provided to The Bohol Tribune on Saturday, August 8, 2020 by BMS president Dr. Jefferson Ong.
In the statement that was noted by Dr. Ong and Dr. Kazan Benigno Baluyot (governor of the Philippine College of Physicians, Region 7), both say, “The Bohol Medical Society raises its objection to the statement of the current provincial health officer, on decreasing the quarantine days from 14 days to 5 days for OFW’s and LSI’s coming into the province. It was agreed that the 5-days quarantine with subsequent (reverse transcription-polymerse chain reaction) RT-PCR testing protocol shall be applied to short-term visitors and possibly tourists along with stringent restriction on range of movement and length of stay.”
The statement further reads, “This is not applicable to OFW’s and LSI’s who are expected to be reintroduced into the general population. They must therefore complete the 14 days quarantine period.”
“Allow us to reiterate that RT-PCR can detect the viral genetic material (RNA) which can either be infectious (2 days before and 10 days after symptom onset) or non-infectious (10 days after symptom onset in most cases). Its accuracy is affected by the timing of collection and amount of virus in the nose where the test specimen is collected:
Day 1 of exposure: 0%
Day 4 of exposure: 33%
Day 5 of exposure, 1st day of symptoms: 62%
Day 8 of exposure, 3rd day of symptoms: 80%
Day 21 of exposure, likely no more symptoms: 34%
(References: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-1495 https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/criteria-for-releasing-covid-19-patients-from-isolation)” the statement continued.
“With this information, it is best to swab on the 8th day of quarantine, the highest chances of picking up a positive case,” the BMS statement reads.
“The Bohol Medical Society maintains the stand that Locally Stranded Individuals, OFWs, and Authorized Person Outside Residence (APOR)” be facility-quarantined for 14 days upon arrival to our province. This would greatly prevent local transmission events,” the statement of the group of Bohol doctors said.
Moreover, the statement said, “Prior to the pandemic, our healthcare system was already overburdened.While we recognize and appreciate the provincial government in its efforts to capacitate the province-owned hospitals, our members have noted that our hospitals are starting to reach maximum capacity. We cannot afford to take risks of a sustained local community transmission of CoViD-19.”
The BMS statement concluded, “We remain steadfast in prayer to remain strong against this formidable foe, and one with the provincial government in promoting the health of the Boholano people!”
The statement comes after the spokesman of the Bohol Inter Agency Task Force (B-IATF) and assistant provincial health officer Cesar Tomas Lopez announced in a virtual presser last Wednesday, August 5, 2020, that the BMS, the PCP, private doctors, the medical center chief of the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) Dr. Mutya Kismet Macuno and infectious disease specialist Dr. Elan Salada unanimously concur and endorsed the memorandum of Gov. Arthur Yap to shorten the quarantine period from 14 days to 5 days.
However, Lopez did not say that it is applicable alone to tourists, OFWs, LSIs or APOR.
In the last August 7, 2020 press briefing at the Capitol, Yap announced that it is possible that the quarantine period may be shortened to 5 days.
The governor said that the BMS and the B-IATF medical cluster “agreed” that it is possible to shorten the quarantine period from 14 days to 5 days as long as there is a negative PCR result and the person remains asymptomatic.
“Klaruhon nako, ingon sa Bohol Medical Society ug medical cluster sa Bohol IATF, 5 days is sufficient, after 5 days you can be given a quarantine test and if you’re negative, makagawas naka, as long as walay sintomas nagibati ang pasyente,” the governor said.
Furthermore, the governor said, “I would like to state, for the record, that this policy was not written by the provincial government. We merely followed the Bohol Medical Society and the medical cluster sa B-IATF.”