Manila, January 22 Philippine President Spokesperson Harry Locke announced that the Philippine Inter-Agency Working Group on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) adopted Resolution No. 95 on the 22nd, modifying the countries and regions where COVID-19 variants appeared.
The travel ban for tourists allows foreigners with valid visas to enter the Philippines, including personnel of international organizations recognized by the Philippines, as well as spouses and minor children of Filipino citizens, but require them to comply with strict health and quarantine agreements.
The resolution also requires people who enter due to emergencies such as medical treatment, including their medical teams, to accept the testing and isolation protocols stipulated by the Philippine Ministry of Health.
In an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19 variants in the country, President Duterte approved a travel ban on the UK on 23 December last year.
Since then, the Philippines has expanded its ban list five times and extended the travel ban twice.
Thirty-five countries and regions, including the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, Japan and Australia, have been included in the ban list.
On the 13th, the Philippine Ministry of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) jointly released a 29-year-old Filipino who entered the United Arab Emirates on the 7th tested positive for the novel coronavirus variant.
On January 15, the IATF-EID resolution extended the travel ban for the above-mentioned countries and regions until the end of January.
The resolution of January 22nd of the IATF-EID also amended the testing and isolation protocols for Filipinos from countries and regions on the travel ban list.
From the original requirement of strict compliance with the 14-day quarantine period, it was amended to comply with the prescribed test and isolation protocol.
At the same time, Filipino citizens and diplomats who enter the Philippines for “very special or medical reasons” are required to comply with the “applicable isolation agreement”.
The resolution requires that inbound passengers from countries or regions on the transit ban list will be tested and quarantined for five days after arriving in the Philippines.
Only when the test results are normal can they enter the Philippines.
According to the data of the Ministry of Health of the Philippines on January 22, 2,178 new confirmed cases were added on that day, with a total of 509,887 cases; 20 deaths, a total of 10,136 cases; 250 recovered cases, 467,720 cases.
Among them, the first confirmed patient imported from abroad with COVID-19 has tested negative.
