THE government imposed a ban on travelers from four more countries to prevent the entry of the more infectious Covid-19 variant which was first reported in India, B1617, and which has been blamed for the alarming rise of infections and deaths in that country.
In a two-page memorandum, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, with authorization from President Duterte, directed relevant government agencies to ban passengers who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka in the last 14 days from entering the country.
The travel restriction will take effect from May 7 to 14, 2021. Passengers from these four countries surrounding India, who will arrive in the country before Friday, will still be allowed to enter the country to undergo an “absolute-facility-based 14-day quarantine period notwithstanding a negative Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction [RT-PCR].”
The collected specimens from these passengers will undergo Genome Sequencing to check if they are infected with B1617.
Those who will be transiting India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will be deemed to have not been in these countries provided they stayed in the airport the whole time.
These passengers will be not required to take the full 14-day facility-based quarantine and instead, undergo the regular testing and quarantine protocols.
Malacañang came out with the new issuance after the Department of Health reported that six travelers who arrived in the Philippines before the travel ban for the South Asian country tested positive for Covid-19. It imposed a travel ban for travelers who came from India, last month amid concern B1617 could enter the country.
India is currently reeling from a surge in Covid-19 cases, which is being linked to the presence of the new variant.
Currently, there is still no reported B1617 detected in the Philippines.
Image credits: Business Mirror file photo