Europe scrambled Monday (Tuesday in Manila) to thrash out a coordinated response to a new strain of the coronavirus which has prompted an international suspension of travel links with the United Kingdom, while the United States saw its own caseload top 18 million.
With travelers in Europe facing a nightmare holiday season, European Union ambassadors were to meet Tuesday to try to nail down a unified approach and work out how to eventually lift the border restrictions with Britain — including by imposing a requirement for tests on all arrivals.
Initial studies of the new virus variant prompted British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to tighten restrictions over Christmas, as more than two dozen countries from India to Argentina suspended flights from the UK — offering a bleak reminder that the pandemic is far from over.
In the Philippines, Malacañang said on Tuesday it would prod the Department of Transportation to possibly ban travelers from the UK, where scientists have identified a new variant of the coronavirus that appears to be more contagious than, and genetically distinct from, more established variants.
“We will prod the DOTr because that's within their jurisdiction. For now, as long as we follow protocols before the result of the PCR test is released, I think we are safe. But you are right, it's time to consider a temporary travel ban on the UK,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said.
Senators also said the Philippines should temporarily ban travelers from Europe given the more infectious COVID-19 mutation spreading there, as well as the uncertainty on whether or not the vaccines would cover the new strain.
Sen. Grace Poe said the government should act on this matter decisively and promptly. She noted that considering tightening our borders will be for the good of nations concerned to contain the infection.
“It's the vaccine that should be spreading across borders, not the virus,” Poe pointed out.
The Philippines can implement border control for a week and wait for the World Health Organization's statement, said Dr. Tony Leachon, a former adviser to the National Task Force against COVID-19.
“I think it was right for Europe to enforce border control to contain the spread of this new virus strain and we should wait in the next few days what the WHO will say,” Leachon said in an interview with ABS-CBN's Teleradyo.
"We need to do this to avoid what happened 11 months ago,” he added, referring to when the Philippines initially refused to ban Chinese nationals from entering the country after the novel coronavirus emerged in Wuhan City.
The new strain of virus has around 70 percent transmissibility rate, Leachon said.
It would be hard to fight both the virus' old and new strains at once, he added.
“Compared with our downward trajectory of virus cases and we haven't also ordered vaccines, then a new strain will enter the country. I think we should declare border control because 1 week is too little time to affect our tourism industry,” the doctor said.
Leachon likewise warned that virus transmission might increase in January and February due to colder temperature.
The WHO’s emergencies chief Michael Ryan tried to temper the alarm by stressing the situation was not "out of control", shortly after a British minister used those exact words to describe the new spread of the new variant.
While experts say there is no evidence the UK variant of the virus — one of several mutations — is more lethal or will affect the impact of vaccines, it may be up to 70 percent more transmissible, according to early data.
Concern over the mutated strain sent European stocks, oil prices and the British pound plunging and transport changes unleashed chaos for travelers and truckers ahead of Christmas.
"It's inhuman not to give people more notice. My boyfriend is out in Turkey, I want to get back to him," said Beth Gabriel Ware, a 23-year-old Briton who recently came home to visit her parents — but is now among those stuck there longer than intended.
Thousands of people are still dying daily from the virus that has claimed at least 1.69 million lives since it first emerged in China late last year.
Roque urged the public to heed the WHO’s advice cautioning against major alarm over the coronavirus variant, even as the Philippines recently allowed the entry of foreign investors, and the partners and children of Filipinos.
The task force leading the country's COVID-19 response also allowed foreign nationals with visas who will leave the Philippines starting Dec. 17, to reenter the country as long as their visas remained valid on the day of their arrival.
They should also have a pre-booked quarantine facility, and a pre-booked COVID-19 testing at an airport laboratory.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a crisis meeting after France announced a 48-hour blockade on both people and freight — just as companies are racing to shift merchandise before Britain finally quits EU trade structures on January 1.
Yet Johnson insisted that supply chains were "strong and robust", with delays hitting only a "small percentage of food entering the UK".
"Everyone can continue to shop," he told a news conference.
The UK has already begun to roll out the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the EU will soon follow after formally approving the jab on Monday.
A rollout will begin across the bloc on December 27, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said.
EU regulators earlier noted there was no evidence to suggest the vaccine would not be effective against the new variant.
In the United States, 78-year-old President-elect Joe Biden received a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine live on television to boost Americans' confidence in the shots.