Philippines to shut border to foreigners as virus cases rise
MANILA: The Philippines will close its border to foreigners and restrict the number of Filipinos entering the country as authorities battle to contain a spike in coronavirus infections.
The temporary measures came after the number of daily cases hit a seven-month high of 5,404 on Monday and experts predicted the figure could double by the end of March.
Most of the active infections are in Metro Manila, where targeted lockdowns, night-time curfews and a stay-at-home order for all children were being used to curb the spread.
The ban on overseas arrivals was announced late on Tuesday by the government’s Covid-19 task force and takes effect on Saturday.
Overseas Filipino workers will be exempt, but the number of passenger arrivals will be limited to 1,500 a day, it said.
Authorities have blamed the infection surge on poor compliance with health protocols, such as wearing a face mask and face shield in public, and more contagious variants of the virus.
A year after ordering the first lockdown that crippled the country’s economy, threw millions out of work and triggered record hunger, President Rodrigo Duterte urged Filipinos to “not despair”.
“It’s a small thing in our lives. We went through (things that) are more severe, more difficult and brought more tears,” Duterte said on Monday.
His remarks sparked anger among social media users and opposition lawmakers who accused him of belittling the sufferings of healthcare workers and people who have lost loved ones to the disease.
Duterte’s government had been flayed over its handling of the pandemic, which had infected more than 630,000 people. Nearly 13,000 have died.
The hospital bed occupancy rate is at 59 per cent in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces, presidential spokesman Harry Roque — who has tested positive for Covid-19 — said on Tuesday.
But at the Philippine General Hospital, one of the country’s main facilities treating Covid-19 patients, 80 per cent of beds for patients diagnosed with the disease were occupied and its intensive care wards full, a spokesman told local media.
The government hoped to inoculate 70 million people by the end of this year.
More than a million doses of vaccines developed by China’s Sinovac and British-Swedish drug maker AstraZeneca had been delivered in the past two weeks.