(December 29, 2020) – President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday banned foreign travelers from at least 20 countries where the new SARS-CoV-2 variant has emerged to prevent the more transmissible coronavirus disease (COVID-19) mutation from reaching the country.
Duterte’s ban, which was prematurely announced early on Tuesday, does not cover Filipino overseas workers who wish to return home from these countries, according to health and labor officials.
(READ: ANO BA TALAGA? | Philippines announces, then withdraws travel ban on 20 countries)
The Philippines has initially banned flights from the United Kingdom from December 24 to 31. Nineteen other countries where the new COVID-19 variant has been detected were included in the latest travel ban which is set to lapse on January 15.
The banned countries are as follows:
1. Denmark
2. Ireland
3. Japan
4. Australia
5. Israel
6. The Netherlands
7. Hong Kong, SAR
8. Switzerland
9. France
10. Germany
11. Iceland
12. Italy
13. Lebanon
14. Singapore
15. Sweden
16. South Korea
17. South Africa
18. Canada
19. Spain
20. United Kingdom
Inaprubahan na ni Pres. Duterte and travel ban sa mga pasaherong may travel history o galing sa 19 pang bansa sa loob ng…
Posted by News5 on Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Filipino overseas workers who want to return home will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine and testing protocols as soon as they arrive at the country’s gateways.
Foreign travelers who recently arrived will also be required to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine regardless of the result of their reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, the gold standard for determining if one has contracted the coronavirus.
The Philippine Genome Center, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and the University of the Philippines – National Institutes of Health have been collaborating with the health department to monitor the situation as well as study the specimens of travelers.
“Ngayon at saka bukas, the Philippine Genome Center have started receiving samples coming from our laboratories,” said Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire. “All of these will take around one week.”
The RITM will also develop a response protocol on how to deal with the new COVID-19 variant.
The Department of Interior and Local Government has been tasked to monitor other inbound travelers from countries not included in the ban. All returning individuals are recommended to self-quarantine at home.
Those individuals who would want to leave the country would still be allowed depending on existing rules.
“Outbound travel to countries with reported new variants shall be subject to the exit protocols of the Philippines and the entry protocols of the respective countries,” said spokesman Harry Roque.
“The Office of the President, upon the joint recommendation of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Foreign Affairs, may impose restrictions to travelers coming from other countries that report the presence of the new variant of COVID-19,” he added.
The new COVID-19 variant was first detected in the United Kingdom and has since been called the VUI-202012/01 which is believed to be more transmissible than the original strain. European countries near Britain were the first to impose travel restrictions to limit people’s movement that could further spread the dangerous variant.
(Beatrice Puente/MM)
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