Authorities will take legal action against eight travelers from South Africa if it is proven that they provided authorities with incorrect or incomplete information on documents used for contact tracing.
“If they are caught, they will be charged because they should not provide incorrect information,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, chair of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said in an interview over dzBB on Wednesday.
He noted that giving incorrect information affected the government’s contact-tracing efforts.
He was referring to Republic Act No. 11332, which mandated the reporting of contagious diseases. The law prohibits the tampering or falsification of information and refusal to cooperate with authorities by an individual with a contagious disease.
The eight returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) were among 253 travelers who arrived in the country from South Africa from Nov. 15 to 29, shortly before the Philippine government imposed a travel ban on South Africa following the World Health Organization’s declaration of the Omicron strain as a variant of concern.Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Wednesday said that of the eight, one has already been traced.
“The located ROF is currently in home quarantine, with a negative RT-PCR test, and no symptoms,” Vergeire said in a message to reporters.
Authorities have yet to trace the whereabouts of the seven others, she said.
According to Vergeire, three of them provided their agency number, one provided an incorrect number, one an incomplete number and two others were unaccounted for.
“We are continuously getting in touch with our local government units and other partners to be able to contact these individuals,” Vergeire said. (© Philippine Daily Inquirer News)
