Duterte bans flights from 19 countries

President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to ban flights from 19 countries with reported cases of the new coronavirus variant.

President Rodrigo Duterte during a meeting with Cabinet members late night of Dec. 28, 2020. Contributed photo

A memorandum released by Malacañang on Tuesday said that aside from the United Kingdom, the travel ban will cover Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Australia, Israel, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Switzerland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Lebanon, Singapore, Sweden, South Korea, South Africa, Canada and Spain.

On Saturday, Duterte extended the travel ban imposed on all flights from the UK for two weeks.

The order will take effect from Dec. 30 to Jan. 15, 2021.

Filipino citizens coming from the countries mentioned can enter the Philippines, but they should undergo a 14-day quarantine period.

Passengers who are already in transit and those who arrived before Dec. 30, 2020 will also be allowed to enter.

However, they should also undergo quarantine for 14 days.

“Outbound travel to countries with reported new variants shall be subject to the existing exit protocols of the Philippines as well as entry protocols of the respective countries,” the memorandum said.

The President has directed laboratories at points of entry to submit the specimens of travelers from the countries mentioned to the Philippine Genome Center, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and the University of the Philippine- National Institutes of Health for genome sequencing.

The Bureau of Quarantine and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration were directed to ensure that returning Filipinos undergo quarantine and testing protocols.

The Department of Health earlier recommended to the IATF-EID and to the President the imposition of a travel ban on at least 20 countries that have the new Covid strain.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) had started the sequencing of the positive virus sample derived from a passenger who arrived from the UK.

Out of 85 passengers who arrived, 81 tested negative for the virus, one had a positive result and the test results of the other three are pending.

Samples from countries with confirmed cases of the new variant are also being sequenced at the PGC and the RITM.

Vergeire said it would take at least a week before they can sequence 700 positive samples coming from the airports and hospitals and determine if a sample of the new variant, B117, has been detected.

She added that a panel of experts will conduct biosurveillance as part of efforts to prevent the entry of the new variant.

Sulu will be among the areas to be monitored. Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan had sought the help of the national government to secure its borders with Sabah.

Vergeire said that while the mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus occurs naturally, the mode of transmission, which is droplet transmission through coughing or sneezing, remains the same.

The country logged 886 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday for a total of 471,526.

With reports from RED MENDOZA

Source: ManilaTimes

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