TRAVEL BAN
Aviation Police Staff Sergeant Christopher Agtarap passes by the flight departure schedule board on December 27. President Duterte on Saturday extended the imposition of a temporary travel ban on all flights from the United Kingdom following reports of a new variant of the SARS-COV-2 in the European nation. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III announced that one of 79 passengers who arrived in the Philippines from the UK tested positive for Covid-19, though it is not yet known whether or not the person was carrying the new strain.
THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced last Sunday its compliance to the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to extend for two more weeks the travel restrictions for arriving passengers who have been to the United Kingdom (UK) in the last 14 days.
BI Commissioner Jaime H. Morente said the extended travel ban would start after December 31, 2020.
Duterte ordered the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) during a meeting last Saturday night to extend the period of the travel restriction on flights from the UK following reports of a new strain of Covid-19 in that country, which is reportedly 70 percent more infectious.
“Consequently, all passengers who have been to the UK in the last 14 days prior to arrival in the country are still restricted entry until January 14, 2021,” Morente said.
Likewise, the BI also assured that it would hasten the formulation of the Implementing Rules and Regulations for Executive Order 122 on “Strengthening Border Control through the Adoption and Implementation of the Advance Passenger Information System [APIS].”
The BI was initially given 60 days from the publication of EO 122 last December 15, but Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra has recommended its immediate implementation to allow the BI to better trace origins and connecting flights in light of the recent findings about a more infectious Covid-19 strain affecting several countries.