The Philippine government on Sunday expanded its travel ban on seven more countries amid the threat of the new COVID-19 called Omicron.
In an announcement, the Inter-Agency Task Force Against Emerging Infectious Disease(IATF-EID) added Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and Italy to the "red list" countries effective November 28 until December 15.
Earlier, the government announced that it has banned inbound travellers from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Mozambique following the detection of the COVID-19 variant in the said countries.
On Friday night, Cabinet secretary and acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles said only Filipinos returning to the country via repatriation flights may be allowed entry, subject to prevailing protocols for “red list” countries.
He added that the Bureau of Quarantine and local government units have been directed to trace travellers who may have come in the country in the last seven days for monitoring.
Passengers who have gone to the countries mentioned in the last 14 days are also barred from entering the Philippines, except if they are already in transit and arrive before 12:01 AM on November 28.
“Passengers already in transit from the abovementioned countries and all those who have been to the same within 14 days immediately preceding arrival to the Philippines, who arrive before 12:01 AM of November 28, 2021, shall not be barred from entry, but shall be required to undergo stricter quarantine and testing protocols such as the observation of an absolute facility-based 14-day quarantine period, notwithstanding a negative RT-PCR result,” Nograles said.
“Meanwhile, all passengers, whether Filipinos or foreigners, merely transiting through the abovementioned countries shall not be deemed as having come from or having been to the said country if they stayed in the airport the entire time and were not cleared for entry into such country by its immigration authorities,” he added.
For Hong Kong, meanwhile, the IATF-EID said inbound travelers from the Chinese special administrative region should comply with the testing and quarantine protocols for “yellow list” countries.
This even after the Omicron variant was already detected in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 clarified that Hong Kong was not among the countries and territories covered by the temporary suspension as it stated earlier in the day.
“We apologize for any inconvenience an earlier pronouncement may have caused,” the task force said in a statement.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Omicron variant, which was first detected in South Africa, "has a large number of mutations" that can have an impact on how the virus behaves.
