The Philippines will impose the travel ban on countries with reported cases of the new strain of SARS-CoV-2 effective December 30.
The latest announcement from Malacañang state that the countries covered by the ban until January 15, 2021 are the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Australia, Israel, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, SAR, Switzerland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Lebanon, Singapore, Sweden South Korea, South Africa, Canada, and Spain.
“Passengers who are already in transit and arrive before December 30, 2020, 12:01AM” from the said countries and those who have been to the said places will not be prohibited from entering the country, but they must undergo a 14-day quarantine.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III earlier said Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are exempted from the ban in accordance with the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte as he wants to give them the chance to return home to their families.
According to Bello, “our OFWs are called the modern day heroes… Nag-contribute sila ng 1.6 trillion to our national economy. Kaya nararapat lang siguro na mabigyan natin sila ng special consideration especially during this time of pandemic (our OFWs contributed 1.6 trillion to our national economy. It is just right to give them special consideration especially during this time of pandemic).”
Sec. Bello clarified that the families of the OFWs are not covered by the exemption. Returning Filipinos will still need to undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine even if they already have a negative RT-PCR test result. – Report from Allan Francisco, PTV News
