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MANILA (Reuters) -The Philippines will ban travellers from 19 nations and territories till mid-January as a measure to maintain out a brand new variant of the coronavirus, its transport ministry stated on Tuesday.
The regulation will likely be in impact from midnight of Dec. 29 to Jan. 15 and covers Filipinos and foreigners arriving from the “flagged nations”, the transport ministry instructed reporters in a bunch textual content message.
The Philippines beforehand imposed and later prolonged a flight ban from Britain till mid-January because the extra contagious variant of the COVID-19 virus was first detected in England.
The brand new variant, which British scientists have known as “VUI – 202012/01,” has renewed fears concerning the virus that has killed over 1.7 million individuals worldwide.
The flagged nations embody France, Australia, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Singapore and Japan.
With greater than 470,000 infections and 9,124 deaths, the Philippines has the second highest variety of COVID-19 circumstances and casualties in Southeast Asia, subsequent to Indonesia.
The brand new variant has not been detected within the Philippines.
Philippine well being officers stated the journey ban could possibly be expanded to incorporate extra nations ought to these report the presence of the brand new COVID-19 variant.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Writing by Karen Lema; Enhancing by Martin Petty)
Copyright 2020 Thomson Reuters.
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