The government will enforce a strict “no home quarantine” policy for people who test positive for COVID-19 "within the week," Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said Tuesday.
“It's really best that we isolate everyone, rich and poor," Año told CNN Philippines.
Año said that "the well-to-do" should not have any problems with the new policy as the government has made hotels available as isolation facilities.
Año’s statement runs counter to the current policy that allows asymptomatic and mild COVID-19 cases to go on home quarantine, provided there is a separate room and toilet for the patient and quarantine protocols are strictly followed.
These conditions have been difficult to monitor, however, and home quarantine has been cited as a possible reason COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Duterte placed the province of Lanao del Sur and the city of Bacolod under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from Sept. 8 to 30, after a spike was in COVID-19 infections was recorded in these areas.
During a meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr. requested that his province be reverted to an MECQ.
Galvez, the chief implementer of the National Policy Against COVID-19, said cases in Bacolod are much higher than cases in Iligan City, which is currently under MECQ.
MECQ is the second most strict quarantine classification.
There are currently three areas under MECQ–Lanao del Sur, Bacolod City, and Iligan City.
Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Batangas and the city of Tacloban are under a general community quarantine (GCQ).
The rest of the Philippines is under a modified GCQ.
As of Monday, the country has recorded a total of 238,727 confirmed COVID-19 cases of which 3,890 are deaths and 184,906 are recoveries.
Also on Tuesday, the IATF allowed the use of antigen tests a pre-boarding requirement for all domestic travelers.
"IATF allowed the use of the antigen test, when it is used as a pre-boarding requirement for asymptomatic domestic tourists before departure and travel to tourist destinations, or as a requirement upon entry at the place of destination if in accordance with the protocols of the local government unit," Roque said in a statement.
Antigen tests could be a substitute for the gold standard real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests, Roque said.
IATF co-chairperson Karlo Nograles previously said they are studying the use of antigen tests in detecting COVID 19 to further ramp up the country’s testing capacity.
The antigen tests use nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal swab for the collection of specimens but it uses laboratory or health care settings for validation of results.
If antigen tests show positive results, it means there are “presumptive COVID-19” but if it yields negative results, it means COVID-19 is unlikely.
The Joint Task Force (JTF) Covid Shield on Tuesday said it will implement tighter screening on the issuance of travel authority for returning locally stranded individuals.
In a statement, task force commander, Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, said Brig. Gen. Alfred Corpus, director for operations of the Philippine National Police (PNP), has ordered all police commanders to strictly coordinate with the receiving local government units (LGUs) to make sure they give the go-signal before a travel authority is issued to an applicant.
The stricter rules are in response to complaints of some LGUs regarding the uncoordinated return of some locally stranded individuals, which are among the causes cited for the surge of COVID-19 cases in some areas.