MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) said travel restrictions would only be considered once a country reports a community transmission of the new variant of the SARS-COV-2 which was first detected in the United Kingdom.
“Please note the recommendations presented refer to countries/areas apart from the UK that have and will report the UK new variant,” the DOH said in a statement over the weekend.
The Philippine health ministry clarified that in the meantime, strict mandatory 14-day quarantine would be imposed for travelers coming from countries that initially reported the new variant, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and Japan.
“Per our experts, as more and more countries report the detection of UK new variant, travel restrictions will be unsustainable. So we will mandate the 14-day quarantine regardless of test results. And part of which is increasing our capacities for bio/genomic surveillance,” it furthered.
Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Duterte has extended for another two weeks the travel ban for flights coming from the UK. Initially, the travel ban began last Dec. 24 and was supposed to end on Dec. 31.
In his address to the public on Saturday night, Duterte said the only way to stop the possible entry of the new variant to the country is to order another suspension of flights.
“As a matter of fact, I am telling you, there is no way of knowing how this thing would evolve. It is evolving. But how far? How fast is the progression? Wala pa tayong alam,” Duterte said.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the variant strain has been predicted to potentially be more rapidly transmissible than other circulating strains of the virus./PN
