The Philippines is going to expand its travel restrictions on 19 more countries and territories until mid-January to prevent spread of the new virus, said its transport ministry on Tuesday.
The ordinance applies from December 29th to January 15th at midnight and applies to Filipinos and foreigners arriving from the “designated countries”, the Department of Transportation told reporters in a group text message.
The Philippines had previously imposed a flight ban from the UK until mid-January and later extended it because the more contagious variant of the COVID-19 virus was first discovered in England.
The new variant, which British scientists have called “VUI – 202012/01”, has renewed fears about the virus that has killed over 1.7 million people worldwide.
The infected countries include France, Australia, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Singapore and Japan.
With more than 470,000 infections and 9,124 deaths, the Philippines has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases and casualties in Southeast Asia, next to Indonesia.
The new variant has not been detected in the Philippines.
Philippine health officials said the travel ban could be expanded to include more countries should those report the presence of the new COVID-19 variant.
(Source – Reuters)
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