Poe seeks clear policy on arrivals from China

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang must immediately formulate and implement a policy on arrivals from China, which continues to record surges of COVID-19 cases, Sen. Grace Poe said yesterday.

While the country is still reeling from the effects of the airport shutdown, the government should anticipate the need for reviving COVID testing requirements for all travelers arriving from China ahead of the expected lifting of Chinese travel restrictions on Jan. 8, she said.

The senator noted that other countries like the US, Britain France, Canada, Japan, South Korea, India, Israel, Morocco, Italy and Spain have re-imposed mandatory COVID tests and other rules on travelers from China.

“The Philippine government should decide definitively on the matter and inform all travelers beforehand,” Poe said.

She lamented the apparent lack of proactive policies on the matter amid the rapidly developing situation overseas.

“Our experience in the past three years of the pandemic has shown that delayed and uninformed COVID-related policies are sometimes more deadly than the pandemic itself,” the senator said.

Now that the Philippines has reopened, there is an urgent need to build confidence that the country is well-positioned and, “hopefully, now better informed in the fight against COVID,” Poe said. – Rhodina Villanueva