In a way, the original novel
coronavirus that started the annoying global pandemic of 2020 has been losing
the fighting against humanity this year, since the first COVID-19 vaccines
rolled out for administration. The focus now is on the increasing mutant strains
of the virus that have been popping up everywhere, described by analysts as
being more aggressive or infectious, and by some vaccine manufacturers as more
resistant to these same vaccines. One COVID variant, the Delta strain from
India, has been so concerning internationally that countries have travel
restrictions in place. The Philippines in fact has just announced an extension
of its standing ban.
According to The Manila Bulletin, a travel ban from the Philippines to India and
six other countries with cases of the Delta COVID-19 variant that is soon to
expire has been given another lease on life. This was announced today, July 4,
by Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on behalf of Malacañang.
The current travel stoppage from the country to areas in the Indian
subcontinent and the Middle East, originally set to end July 15, will now
continue all the way to the end of this month. The affected nations are India,
ground zero of the Delta strain, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, UAE, Oman and
Indonesia.
The travel ban extension was made
on recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), which has been
monitoring the trends in COVID strains overseas. The addition of Indonesia to
the former six restricted destinations was made with the ban extension, after
the IATF technical working group assessed an upsurge in new Indonesian cases of
the Delta variant to bring its infection total to two million.
So far, on 19 COVID cases in the
Philippines at present are of the Delta strain. All of them however were
returning OFWs, giving credence to extending the travel ban between the
Philippines and the Middle East for instance. Unfortunately, the new
restriction expiry has caused no end of complaints from overseas Filipino workers
in the affected nations, as they themselves having to rebook airline tickets
they can no longer use at the moment. Spokesperson Roque notes that this
wasteful side-effect of the ever-changing travel ban advisories could be
mitigated by having the IATF assessments on lifting or retaining the bans be
done monthly rather than weekly, for ample prep. Meanwhile, local community
quarantine levels are still set to be updated on Thursday, independent of the
overseas travel ban situation.
Image courtesy of ABS-CBN News
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