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MANILA: The Philippines approved measures on Saturday (December 26) to curb the spread of new, more infectious coronavirus variants, as warned by President Rodrigo Duterte of a second lockdown in the event that cases increase before the country receives its first vaccines. in May.
Countries around the world have closed their borders in recent days to flights from the United Kingdom and South Africa, where more infectious variants have been detected.
Duterte extended an existing ban on flights from Britain for two weeks until mid-January, and said the Philippines would impose travel restrictions in countries with local community transmission of the UK variant.
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With more than 469,000 infections and 9,067 deaths, the Philippines has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases and victims in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia.
However, neither the UK nor the South African variant has been detected there yet.
In an emergency meeting with health experts and government officials, Duterte also ordered a 14-day quarantine for passengers who came to or transited Britain, and from countries and territories where the most infectious variant of COVID-19 identified by was detected. first time, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Japan.
Duterte promised free vaccines for the country’s 108 million people, and shipments and inoculation will begin in May.
“If (in the meantime) the severity in the numbers demands that we take immediate corrective measures, then we should return to the lockdown,” he said.
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In mid-March, the Philippines imposed one of the longest and toughest coronavirus lockdowns in the world, which was gradually relaxed in June to allow a slow reopening of the economy.
The Philippines is in talks to procure around 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including those from Britain’s Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, as well as Johnson & Johnson, India’s Novavax, China’s Sinovac and Russia’s Gamaleya Institute.
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