FOR two weeks beginning April 29, 2021, travelers from India and those with travel history to India within the last 14 days preceding arrival will not be allowed entry into the Philippines, Malacañang said.
This restriction, which also applies to Filipino travelers, took effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, April 29. It will last until May 14, 2021.
Passengers already in transit from India and all those with travel history to India who arrive before 12:01 a.m. of April 29 will be required to undergo facility-based quarantine for 14 days despite a negative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test result.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said restrictions may also be imposed on travelers from countries with cases of the new coronavirus variant from India based on the joint recommendation of the Department of Health and the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Roque announced the travel ban on India Tuesday evening, April 27, shortly after this was approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
He said the Department of Transportation has been directed to ensure that airlines will not allow boarding of passengers from India except when they are part of the government’s repatriation efforts.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases are rising rapidly in India, where a new variant of Sars-CoV-2 called B.1.617 has been detected.
On Wednesday, April 28, India’s Covid-19 death toll passed 200,000 while total infections approached 18 million, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
Earlier Tuesday, DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the IATF had consulted him on the foreign policy implications of a travel ban on India.
Locsin said he recommended a travel ban.
“I have suggested to the IATF that a travel ban be imposed on all our good friends in the entire Indian subcontinent. It’s not personal. It’s for everyone’s safety for now. We’ll be able to be together again and we can recall the time when we had to be apart to live,” Locsin said in a Twitter post.
The B.1.617 variant in India has been classified as a variant under investigation by the World Health Organization (WHO), DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a separate statement Tuesday evening. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)