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MANILA: An island province in the southern Philippines will be sealed for an initial two weeks starting Monday (January 4) to prevent the entry of a new variant of COVID-19 found in nearby Malaysia, its governor said.
Sulu, home to more than 900,000 people, currently has only two known active cases of the coronavirus, out of 242 registered so far, of which 12 were deaths.
“This is to protect our shores from the COVID-19 strain reported in Sabah, Malaysia, considering we are so close,” Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan told the ANC news channel on Thursday.
A senior Malaysian health official last week found a new variant in the country, but had yet to detect the highly infectious variant that was originally discovered in Britain.
READ: Delayed transfer of COVID-19 cases to hospitals due to ‘logistics’, rather than lack of beds: Malaysia’s chief health officer
Sulu has requested the national government to provide more boats and helicopters to monitor its maritime borders with Sabah in Malaysia.
The lockdown will run from January 4 to January 17, but could be extended, Tan said. Residents not currently on the islands will be denied entry starting Monday.
READ: Philippines extends travel ban to limit spread of new strain of COVID-19 virus
The Philippines has had more than 472,000 infections overall, among the highest cases in Southeast Asia, mainly in the capital Manila.
Despite strict entry and quarantine requirements on entry through its international airports, its vast southern maritime borders are notoriously porous, with long-established trade and travel routes between its islands and Sabah.
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