Philippines widens travel ban to prevent entry of new COVID-19 strain

MANILA, December 30 ------ The Philippines widened on Tuesday a travel ban to 20 countries that have reported a new, more infectious coronavirus variant first observed in the UK. The travel ban, which initially covered only Britain, has been extended to cover the following territories effective midnight of Dec. 29, 2020, said the Manila International Airport Authority.

United Kingdom

South Africa

Switzerland

Italy

Denmark

Israel

Hong Kong

Spain

Ireland

Netherlands

Singapore

Lebanon

Japan

Canada

Germany

Sweden

Australia

France

Iceland

South Korea

Passengers already in transit or who had been in any of the flagged countries within 14 days from entry into the Phils and who arrive before Dec. 30 "will be allowed entry but they shall be subjected to strict quarantine and testing protocols (mandatory 14 day quarantine in OWWA and DOT accredited facilities) despite getting a negative RT-PCR result," MIAA said on Facebook. With more than 470,000 infections, the Philippines has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia, next to Indonesia.

Neither the UK nor the South African variant have been detected there yet, however. In an emergency meeting with health experts and government officials, President Rodrigo Duterte last Saturday extended an existing ban on flights from Britain by 2 weeks to mid-January. He also ordered a 14-day quarantine for passengers who have come from or transited through Britain, and from territories where the more infectious COVID-19 variant first identified there was detected, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and Japan.

Duterte pledged free vaccines for the country's 108 million population, with shipments and inoculation to start in May, behind schedules of other nations. "If (in the meantime) severity in numbers would demand that we take corrective measures immediately, then we should just have to go back to lockdown," he said. In mid-March, the Philippines imposed one of the world's longest and toughest coronavirus lockdowns, which were gradually relaxed in June to allow a slow reopening of the economy. The Philippines is in talks to acquire around 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including from Pfizer Inc, Moderna and Britain's AstraZeneca, as well as Johnson & Johnson, India's Novavax Inc, China's Sinovac, and Russia's Gamaleya Institute.

Source: abs-cbn.com