Dubai: All major carriers of the UAE and the Philippines have cancelled their flights to Manila, following the decision of the Philippine government on Thursday evening to impose a travel ban on “all travellers going to the Philippines coming from Oman and the UAE from May 15 until May 31”.
“In line with the latest directives issued by the government of the Philippines, passengers from the UAE and Oman will not be accepted for travel to Manila (MNL) effective Friday 14 May at 23:59 UAE time until further notice, with the exemption of Filipino citizens who are part of the government repatriation programme. This is in addition to the current ban on travel from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to the Philippines,” Etihad said on Friday in a statement.
Community-led HIV services stepped up in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic
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The HIV response in the Philippines has been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially access to HIV prevention and treatment services. According to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, in Metro Manila coverage of HIV prevention services for gay men and other men who have sex with men has decreased by 74% since 2019. Government figures show that compared to 2019, in 2020 HIV testing decreased by 61% and enrolment in HIV care reduced by 28%. The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to socioeconomic divides, highlighting failures within the health system to adequately deal with not one pandemic but two.
Image/DOH
The two individuals infected with Covid-19 variant from India are both male overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
One of the two patients is a 37-year-old OFW from Oman, while the other one is a 58-year-old OFW from the United Arab Emirates.
DOH Epidemiology Bureau Director Althea de Guzman said the B.1.617 variant was first detected in India last October 2020 and later detected in 46 other countries, based on the global genome database.
“It contains at least 15 mutations, with two significant mutations we’re monitoring and these are the L452R and the E484Q and the specific variant B.1.617.2 which we detected has an additional mutation which is the T478K,” de Guzman said.