Philippines’ President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has now approved a recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force to extend travel restrictions. The ongoing travel restrictions will continue until August 15, in view of COVID 19 delta variant that is causing a surge in coronavirus cases in the country. The travel restriction is extended to ten countries, including India.
The countries on which the travel restrictions have been extended are India, Sri Lanka, Oman, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Thailand. The ban on India was first imposed this year on April 29 as the number of coronavirus infections were rising at an alarming rate.
That travel restriction was then on July 14, covering India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, UAE, Oman, and Sri Lanka. It was extended until July 31.
President Duterte spoke to the nation, and advised people to remain at home. He said, am telling you, don’t leave your homes. If you go out, I will tell the police to escort you back to your house because you are a walking spreader.”
The President further said that the country cannot go back to square one by allowing the Delta variant of the virus to surge. The infection rate in the Philippines has risen to a great extent, reaching a two-month high on Friday, last week. The country recorded 8562 new cases on Friday, taking the total number of cases to 1580824. A total of 27722 cases of death has been recorded in the country up until now.
