The United Kingdom has announced that it will prohibit the entry of travellers from the Philippines due to the rising COVID-19 cases and variants in the country.
The British government said on Friday that the Philippines is added to the red list together with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kenya.
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International visitors who departed from or transited through these four countries in the past 10 days will be refused entry into the UK.
The UK government adds that only British and Irish citizens, or those with residence rights in the UK can enter UK given they undergo a 10-day facility-based quarantine.
The UK government said that decision is to prevent the entry of new COVID-19 variants to their country.
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“The government has made it consistently clear it will take decisive action if necessary to contain the virus and has added these destinations to the red list to protect public health,” it said in a statement.
“PH has just been added to the UK Red List (i.e. travel ban to the UK) together with Kenya, Bangladesh & Pakistan. Understandable, with our current surge. Filipinos going to the UK should reach out to their airline/travel agent,” Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Dodo Dulay said in a tweet.
The Philippines has recorded cases of UK, South African and Brazil variant. The Philippines also has over 100 cases of the P3 variant which has yet to ve declared by WHO as variant of concern. (TDT)
