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Rhodina Villanueva - The Philippine Star
June 1, 2025 | 12:00am
A woman wears a face mask as she walks past a Bureau of Quarantine health notice about mpox at the arrival gates of the Iloilo International Airport on Friday night. Iloilo City health officials assured the public that there is no evidence of community transmission following the first confirmed case in the city.
Miguel De Guzman
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) shut down rumors of a planned lockdown amid mpox cases monitored across the country, calling a viral social media post indicating a lockdown by June 10 as “fake.”
“There is no plan to have a lockdown. We need first to declare an outbreak if there is a need, but there is no outbreak (of mpox). Lockdown is a very extreme measure; we used it during the pandemic. Mpox has to become a pandemic, which it is not,” DOH Secretary Ted Herbosa said at a press briefing yesterday.
“Lockdown does not work for mpox because it is (transmitted through) skin-to-skin contact, so if there is a lockdown, there could be more skin-to-skin contact,” he added.
Herbosa advised the public to be more discerning of information on social media.
“That is the problem with social media, there are so many misinformation. Actually, the cases reported in a number of LGUs
– those were reports made several weeks ago but were just picked up by social media,” he said.
The DOH chief said they conducted a review of mpox cases recorded in the country and saw no increase.
“Comparing with mpox cases recorded last year, the number of cases this year is lower so there is no increase in cases,” Herbosa noted.
He pointed out that all the cases detected in the country are the milder Clade II variants.
“That doesn’t necessitate a public health emergency of international concern. What falls under PHEIC is the mpox of Clade IB variant. There is none (yet) recorded in the Philippines like that,” Herbosa noted.
The fake advisory that used the logos of the DOH and World Health Organization (WHO) also noted that mandatory use of face mask will be enforced nationwide.
“The spread of mpox is through intimate, skin to skin contact. Even if you wear (a) face mask, if there is skin to skin contact, you can still have mpox. The (face) mask is for airborne or aerosol spread microbes. It is used to prevent transmission of flu, cough and colds,” Herbosa explained.
Based on the WHO advisory, countries should monitor if they have Clade IB mpox, Herbosa added.
“That is what we are doing. The DOH is conducting monitoring and surveillance of (mpox) cases,” he said.
According to DOH data, more mpox cases were detected in April 2025 compared to May.
