Government announces PH travel ban as a new strain of coronavirus surfaces.
PH TRAVEL BAN – The Philippines announces travel ban expansion to 19 more countries to prevent the spread of the new variant of coronavirus.
As the world meets the end of the year 2020, a year which absolutely challenged everyone, a new variant of the coronavirus has been discovered. It was first detected in the United Kingdom and a separate strain has also been discovered in South Africa.
As of December 28, the following countries have confirmed cases of the new coronavirus:
- Australia
- Canada
- Denmark
- France
- Germany
- Hong Kong
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- The Netherlands
With the new strain quickly spreading to different countries, Philippines announced expansion of travel ban. Previously, travelers from UK have been banned to enter the country and this has been extended until January 15, 2021.
And through presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, an expanded travel ban from the following countries will take effect starting Wednesday, Dec. 30 until January 15:
- Denmark
- Ireland
- Japan
- Australia
- Israel
- The Netherlands
- Hong Kong, SAR
- Switzerland
- France
- Germany
- Iceland
- Italy
- Lebanon
- Singapore
- Sweden
- South Korea
- South Africa
- Canada
- Spain
Filipinos coming from the abovementioned countries are exempted but subject to do a 14-day quarantine in a facility with a negative result. Roque said, “However, they shall be required to undergo an absolute facility-based 14-day quarantine period, notwithstanding a negative RT-PCR test result.”
The new variant has renewed fear of the people as the mutation has increased the virus transmissibility. As of this writing, the new variant has not been detected in the Philippines. Also, President Duterte said that lockdown is possible if cases of new coronavirus variant spike.
READ ALSO:
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- Filipinos Infected By COVID-19 Abroad Increases, DFA Confirms
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