MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th March, 2021) The Philippine authorities have banned foreigners and people of Philippine origin who live outside the country from entering for one month to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and its variants, the national task force against COVID-19 said.
"In light of efforts to prevent the entry of SARS-CoV-2 variants from other countries and the further rise of cases, all concerned agencies are hereby directed to limit the number of inbound international passengers/arrivals to only ...1,500 a day and to temporarily suspend the entry of Foreign Nationals and Returning Overseas Filipinos," the task force said on Twitter.
The ban will be in effect from March 20 to April 19, but it does not apply to accredited officials of foreign states and to emergency medical and humanitarian situations.
Earlier in March, the Philippine government declared the discovery of a new coronavirus strain in the country, dubbed P.3 and and 98 cases associated with this variant have been registered across the Philippines so far. However, the authorities need more information on the variant to evaluate its contagion and death risks.
To date, the Philippines has confirmed over 630,000 COVID-19 cases and nearly 13,000 related fatalities.
