19. Spain
The government has already extended a travel ban on flights coming from the United Kingdom until January 15 as a precaution against the entry of the more contagious new COVID strain in the country. Travelers from the UK also prohibited from entering the country “except as modified with respect to Filipino citizens,” according to the Palace memo.
The UK travel ban was originally imposed by the Philippine government from Dec. 24 to 31 but has been extended by the President for two more weeks. The new COVID strain, which first emerged in the UK, has reportedly bee detected in several other countries.
SunStar
File December 29, 2020 FOREIGN travelers arriving from or transiting through 19 countries, aside from the United Kingdom (UK), will not be allowed to enter the Philippines beginning 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, December 30, 2020.
Filipino citizens with travel history in UK or in any of the 19 countries within 14 days preceding arrival in the Philippines will be allowed to enter the country, but will be required to undergo an absolute facility-based 14-day quarantine regardless of RT-PCR test results.
The prohibition, which is aimed at blocking the more contagious UK variant of Sars-CoV-2, will last until January 15, 2021. Sars-CoV-2 causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Malacañang said the prohibition covers UK and the following countries:
CALOOCAN CITY, Dec. 28 (PIA) Contrary to reports that there is still no travel ban here in the Philippines to prevent the entry of the reported new strain of COVID-19, the Department of Health (DOH) clarifies that a ban for travelers from the UK or those with history of travel from the UK has been in effect since 24 December 2020.
In a statement, the Health department said pursuant to the Inter-agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) Resolution No. 90, the ban has been in effect since 12:01 AM of December 24 and all flights from the UK have been temporarily suspended until December 31, 2020. Following tonight’s IATF meeting, President Rodrigo Roa-Duterte has approved the extension of the said travel ban for two more weeks.
SunStar Duterte extends UK travel ban, okays other measures to block new virus variant
ENGLAND. In this photo taken in June 2020, passengers wearing face masks arrive at London s Heathrow Airport. (File)
+ December 27, 2020 (UPDATED) President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday, December 26, 2020, approved the recommendation to extend for two weeks the temporary ban on inbound flights from the United Kingdom (UK) in a bid to block the new Sars-CoV-2 variant.
The President also approved the strict implementation of mandatory 14-day quarantine regardless of RT-PCR test results for all passengers coming from countries with confirmed cases of the new virus variant such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, South Africa and Japan.
endIndex:
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 23) Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Wednesday said the new variant of COVID-19 found in the United Kingdom feared to be more rapidly transmissible has not yet reached the Philippines. He stressed, however, that this is based on the samples collected in the country in September and October.
Researchers from the Philippine Genome Center on Tuesday reported that it analyzed 65 samples from populous Metro Manila and “found practically no overlapping spike protein mutations” between the new SARS-COV-2 variant found in England and the mutated COVID-19 strain found in the Philippines in June. It said that data suggested that the D614G variant of the virus that is prevalent in the Philippines is “not closely related with the UK variant.”