The United States will be added to the list of countries on which the Philippines will enforce a temporary travel ban once the US officially declares to a World Health Organization body that the new strain of the coronavirus has entered its borders, the Department of Health said Wednesday.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire clarified that the DOH will wait for an advisory from the WHO’s International Health Regulations office before updating its list of banned countries—currently at 20 nations—owing to the new form of the virus that causes COVID-19.
“We will wait for the US to officially notify the WHO IHR or official announcement by their government regarding this new strain identified in Colorado before we include it in our official list,” she said.
“The policy is yes, we will include them,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque said earlier in an online press briefing when asked if the US would have to be included on the list.
“Remember, this is not a permanent ban. This is only a temporary ban to give us time to assess our situation and to check whether this new variant has already arrived in the Philippines or not yet,” he said.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced Tuesday that the US state discovered their first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.17, the same strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2 discovered in the United Kingdom.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, quoting Vergeire, tried to temper fears of the US ban, saying both Filipino and non-Filipino travelers from the States will be allowed entry as the DOH still has to confirm the travel ban.
“As to whether the President (Rodrigo Duterte) may impose restrictions to travelers coming from the United States in light of this new development, the guidance of the Chief Executive is clear: This shall be upon the joint recommendation of the Department of Health, which sits as Chair of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), and the Department of Foreign Affairs,” Roque said.
This developed as Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan put his province in lockdown from Jan. 4 to 17, 2021 to prevent the spread of the new, more contagious virus variant.
The lockdown will ban the entry of returning migrant workers and residents who are not frontliners, Tan said, but goods from other areas will still be allowed entry into the province.
The governor said the lockdown was necessary after nearby Sabah detected the new coronavirus variant.
Senator Christopher Go had recommended stricter border control and travel restrictions in seaports after Sabah state in Malaysia reported the presence of the new coronavirus variant.
Duque said the emergence of a new coronavirus variant in the Philippines is “inevitable,” but Filipinos are not defenseless against COVID-19
“It’s not a question of if. It is a question of when. Notwithstanding that, we can also have our own variant here, that could happen in the Philippines. So, we just have to watch out for this,” Duque said in an interview on CNN Philippines.
“Whatever is the variant, I think what’s important is for our people to understand that we are not defenseless… We can put up a fight,” Duque said, noting the importance of adhering to minimum health protocols of wearing face masks and shields and social distancing.
The Philippines imposed a temporary travel ban on the United Kingdom and 19 other countries which recorded a new variant of the coronavirus that is said to be more transmissible.
The travel ban currently includes Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Australia, Israel, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Switzerland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Lebanon, Singapore, Sweden, South Korea, South Africa, Canada, and Spain.
The Bureau of Immigration said it will not allow the entry of foreign passengers from and transiting through the 20 countries from Dec. 30, 2020 to Jan. 15, 2021. Outbound travel, the bureau said, remains subject to existing protocols of both the Philippines and the destination country.
Filipino citizens coming from these countries or areas will also be allowed to enter the Philippines but will be required to undergo an absolute facility-based 14-day quarantine period, notwithstanding a negative RT-PCR test result.
The Health chief said there is no evidence yet that this new variant has already reached the country.
The Philippines has been able to “bring down and stabilize” the number of COVID-19 cases recorded daily in the past 10 months, Duque said.
Nevertheless, the public should not be complacent with the lower number of reported cases.
“It is during the holiday season that people are less likely to have themselves tested… we will only find this out towards the end of the first week of January, what the real numbers would look like,” Duque said.
In other developments:
* The Department of Tourism (DOT), on Wednesday, expressed its full support to the tightening of measures of entry protocols especially from the United Kingdom in view of the confirmed new COVID-19 variant. “While we favor the resumption of inbound travel to stimulate economic recovery, we value above all else the health and safety of our people. In this light, we ask for the understanding and cooperation of inbound travelers in adhering to the measures put in place to ensure the protection of both guests and local communities,” said Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat.
* The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said returning Filipino workers not coming from the 20 territories covered by the travel ban need not go through the entire 14-day quarantine period.
* A health expert said the Philippines will know in the next two weeks if the highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that surfaced in the UK is already in the country. Dr. Cynthia Saloma, executive director of the Philippine Genome Center, said they were checking samples of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in November and December and recent travelers who tested positive for the virus. “We will know the results probably in the middle of January or the first week of January,” she said.