The Philippines has included China and four other countries covered by its travel ban starting January 13 to prevent the UK COVID-19 variant from entering the country, Malacañang announced Tuesday.
Aside from China, Pakistan, Jamaica, Luxembourg, and Oman, are now also included in the list, according to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, citing information from the Office of the Executive Secretary.
The travel ban is now imposed in over 30 countries/jurisdictions. This will be enforced until January 15.
Among the countries covered by the travel ban are:
- United Kingdom
- Denmark
- Ireland
- Japan
- Australia
- Israel
- The Netherlands
- Hong Kong
- Switzerland
- France
- Germany
- Iceland
- Italy
- Lebanon
- Singapore
- Sweden
- South Korea
- South Africa
- Canada
- Spain
- US
- Austria
- Portugal
- India
- Finland
- Norway
- Jordan
- Brazil
China, 4 other countries now included in PH’s travel ban
Filipinos coming from said countries will be allowed entry, but will be referred to the airport’s one-stop-shop to “undergo an absolute facility-based 14-day quarantine period, notwithstanding a negative RT-PCR result,” the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said.
Not only one, but three COVID-19 variants are being monitored by the Department of Health (DOH) once they enter the Philippines.
“Sa ngayon, meron na tayong tatlong variant na binabantayan. Ito po ‘yung sa UK na type ng variant, ito po ‘yung sa South African na variant, and then there was this identified variant din dito naman sa Malaysia,” Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire confirms in virtual press briefing.
DOH said last week that the UK COVID-19 variant, identified as B.1.1.7, is not yet detected in the Philippines.
“The DOH and the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) today report that the said variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has not yet been detected in the country,” the DOH said in a statement.
“Based on the lineage analysis through whole-genome sequencing done by the PGC, the UK variant was not detected in any of the 305 positive samples submitted to them from nine institutions.”
PGC analyzed 305 positive samples collected from hospital admissions from November to December and from the travelers who arrived at the airport and tested positive for COVID-19.
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