The Department of Health (DoH) on Monday reiterated that no border control and lockdowns are needed to contain the mpox spread in the country.

"With our data, we will not implement any border control or community quarantine. We will not mandate face masks or face shields,” DoH Secretary Ted Herbosa said.

“The best prevention is frequent hand washing and hygienic practices," Herbosa stressed.

He also emphasized that there is “no added value to health for a public counting of cases.”

“It only leads to anxiety and mental health problems,” Herbosa continued.

“Surveillance, case finding and community engagement are best handled by the DoH and local health authorities," he added.

Since 2022, the Philippines has had zero fatalities, and nine cases have fully recovered.

DoH said 14 active cases are mpox Clade II, recovering at home.

Herbosa said the DoH mpox response which includes prompt testing, contact tracing, and home care makes it easy to break chains of transmission. Mpox Clade II is the milder variant of mpox.

Unlike Covid-19 which is airborne, mpox Clade II is transmitted by close and intimate, skin-to-skin contact and through objects touched by patients with active skin lesions.

It does not spread as fast and as wide as Covid-19. Covering one's skin in crowded areas, and washing hands often with soap and water or using alcohol sanitizers will kill the virus.

Objects can be made virus-free by the usual disinfectants and alcohol.

The Health chief said they anticipate more positive mpox cases because the DoH is testing as fast and as broadly as it can.

However, he noted that Increasing case counts does not mean increasing infections.

“Mpox Clade II has always been around, with people getting it via close, intimate skin-to-skin contact. They have also been recovering, and there have been no deaths since.”

Herbosa said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID), established during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, is being updated regularly, but will not be activated for now.

Containment can be implemented by DoH and local government units should they get an imported case of Mpox Clade Ib.

However, the DoH may consider activating the IATF should there be community transmission of Mpox Clade Ib.