Philippines Considering Possible Travel Ban To South Korea
PHILIPPINES CONSIDERING SOUTH KOREA – The Philippine government is considering the possibility of imposing a travel ban on South Korea amidst the rampant spread of the new coronavirus.
The epicenter of the disease in Korea started in Daegu and was linked to a religious group called the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Most of South Korea’s 833 cases are linked there.
The government had given themselves four weeks to contain the viral outbreak. If they fail to do so, they fear that COVID-19 could spread nationwide.
Because of this, South Korea had now been placed under RED Alert, the highest alert for infectious diseases.
According to a report from ABS-CBN, the government’s task force on emerging infectious diseases would meet on Wednesday to decide if a travel ban on South Korea would be imposed.
This meeting is crucial because tomorrow one of the things that were going to be talking about is South Korea. Do we impose a travel ban on South Korea or not? At what level or number of COVID-19 positives are we looking at for us to make a decision
Meanwhile, the travel ban to and from China, Hong Kong, and Macao are still active. However, those with Filipino citizenship are exempted from the travel ban.
As per the report, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles stated that the task force would look into whether the entire country would be banned or just a particular area.
Obviously it will have a big dent on tourism granting that I think we have about 2 million Korean tourists coming every year, they share 24 percent of the market of international tourists
Neighboring countries such as Japan had already imposed a ban on travelers coming from the Hubei Province in China. However, South Korea had not followed in that regard.
More than half a million people had already signed a petition to ban all visitors from China. But, Seoul stated they wouldn’t go through with the ban for economic and diplomatic reasons.
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