The Philippines banned on Sunday inbound flights from seven more countries, on top of the seven African countries announced earlier, amid growing concerns over the new COVID-19 variant called Omicron.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) added Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy to the âred listâ countries from Nov. 28 to Dec. 15.
On Friday, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini and Mozambique were placed under the red list immediately following the announcement of the detection of the new COVID-19 variant.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, IATF cochair and spokesperson, said the inbound international travel of all persons, regardless of vaccination status, coming from or who had been to the red list countries and territories within the last 14 days prior to arrival to any port of the Philippines would not be allowed.
Only Filipinos returning to the country via government or nongovernment-initiated repatriation and âbayanihan flightsâ may be allowed entry subject to prevailing entry, testing and quarantine protocols for red list areas, he said.
Also on Sunday, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chief implementer, said the government might reimpose movement restrictions as part of plans being considered to prevent or delay the entry of the Omicron variant to the country.
Plans to further lower the alert level in Metro Manila will also be reconsidered, Galvez said.
âHopefully, the Omicron will not be able to [reach] us as fast as we have seen in Europe. As much as possible, we can minimize the effects of Omicron by preventing or delaying [its entry] to the country, but it is very imminent,â Galvez said.
In the meantime, Nograles said passengers already in transit who had been to the red list areas within 14 days immediately preceding arrival to the Philippines and who would arrive before 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 30 were not covered by the entry restriction.
However, they will be required to undergo facility-based quarantine for 14 days and testing on the seventh day, with Day 1 being the date of arrival, notwithstanding a negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test result.
Passengers who arrived prior to Nov. 28 and are currently undergoing quarantine pursuant to the classifications of their country of origin are required to complete their respective testing and quarantine protocols.
Nograles said passengers merely transiting through the red list countries would not be deemed as having come from or having been to said countries if they stayed in the airport the whole time while in transit and were not cleared for entry by those countriesâ immigration authorities. They are, however, subject to existing testing and quarantine protocols.
For Hong Kong, Nograles said inbound travelers from the Chinese special administrative region should comply with the testing and quarantine protocols for âyellow listâ countries.
Meanwhile, the NTF clarified that Hong Kong was not among the countries and territories covered by the temporary suspension as it stated earlier in the day. (©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2021)
