The Philippine government has extended the travel restrictions on seven countries until July 15.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque and Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque both confirmed the extension of the travel restriction to The Filipino Times in a text message.
“Extended na po. July 15,” said Roque.
Duque confirmed this saying: “Yes, extended na to July 15.”
The ban covers UAE, Oman, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka due to the threat of the Delta COVID-19 variant.
This is the fourth time the travel ban has been extended in order to curb the entry of the more transmissible Delta variant first detected in India.
An IATF resolution has allowed some overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from UAE, Oman, India and three other countries to return to the country but only through repatriation flights.
Earlier on Tuesday, DOH Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a media interview that they are in favor of the extension. She said in a media interview: “There are a lot of Filipinos coming from these countries. It’s very irrational that we will restrict all countries. Times are very dynamic. We just retain 7 countries which we think are most affected.”
The DOH official said that the government is not inclined on adding more countries with Delta COVID-19 variant.
“We cannot ban all countries affected with delta. There are 92 countries with delta and we cannot isolate PH from all these countries. Our recommendation will be not to add more countries to be banned but let’s strengthen our border controls so isolation, quarantine and genome sequencing,” Vergeire said.
