DOH to recommend travel restrictions on nations with new COVID-19 variant

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health said Monday it would recommend imposing travel restrictions on countries with documented case of the new coronavirus variant, which experts fear is more contagious.

Proposed measures to keep the new coronavirus strain out of the Philippines would be discussed in the meeting of the government’s inter-agency task force on COVID-19 Monday morning, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.

“This is urgent. We all know that the decisions would be critical and should be immediate,” Vergeire said in an interview on ANC’s “Headstart.”

“This recommendation will be given by the DOH where we are going to recommend that we expand the restrictions in our borders to include other countries which also have this variant identified already,” she added.

In a release Sunday, the DOH said the agency, along with the World Health Organization, is closely monitoring nations with documented cases of the new variant from the United Kingdom and countries that reported other new local variants. These include Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

DOH said its panel of experts and the WHO are also looking at the possible restriction of entry of travelers from these countries.

The government extended for two weeks the suspension of flights from the UK, which was due to end on December 31, Thursday.

The new strain of the virus, believed to be more transmissible, emerged earlier this month in the UK, prompting dozens of countries to impose travel restrictions on Britain.

The new variant has so far not been detected in the Philippines.

‘Suspend repatriation from Sabah’

Sulu Gov. Abdusukur Tan has meanwhile asked the national government to suspend the repatriation of Filipinos from Sabah after a new coronavirus variant was detected there.

"That is what we’re seeking from national government, especially from IATF to support us on matters of measures we may deem appropriate and to intervene and negotiate with the Malaysian government to suspend repatriation of Filipinos, undocumented Filipinos from Sabah," Tan said in an interview on ANC’s “Headstart.”

He added that Sulu is “able to control travel as clearances to enter the province are signed by him.

Dr. Socorro Escalante, coordinator for the WHO Western Pacific, earlier said the variant detected in Sabah is different from the strain that originated in the UK.

“But it’s similar to other mutations that are located in South Africa, in Australia and in the Netherlands. So we do not yet know what is the significance of this mutation and what are the implications in terms of public health system,” Escalante said on December 26.

The Philippines has so far reported 469,886 COVID-19 cases, with 9,109 deaths. — Gaea Katreena Cabico