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Philippines extends travel ban over new virus strain
The two-week extension comes as the Southeast Asian country scrambles to contain the pandemic following its announcement Wednesday that just such a variant had been detected in the country for the first time.
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A train staff wearing a protective suit guides passengers boarding a bus at a train station in Manila on July 7, 2020, after authorities suspended operation of one of the train lines after some of its staff tested positive of COVID -19 disease. (AFP/Miggy Hilario )
T
he Philippines said Friday it has extended until the end of this month a travel ban on foreigners from Japan and other countries where a new, possibly more transmissible variant of the coronavirus has been confirmed.
The two-week extension comes as the Southeast Asian country scrambles to contain the pandemic following its announcement Wednesday that just such a variant had been detected in the country for the first time.
The ban, which took effect on Dec. 30 and was set to end Friday, originally targeted 20 countries and regions but has since expanded to 33 countries and regions, including mainland China.
The Health Department said Wednesday that it detected the new strain spreading in Britain from a Filipino who had returned from the United Arab Emirates last week.
Meanwhile, the country's Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use, making it the first COVID-19 vaccine approved in the country. It is expected to arrive soon, possibly in February.
On Wednesday, China's Sinovac Biotech applied to the drug regulator for its vaccine's emergency use in the Philippines, according to local media.
The government plans to acquire 25 million doses of the Chinese vaccine, 50,000 of which are scheduled to arrive on Feb. 20, the media said.
The Philippines had recorded a total of 496,646 virus cases as of Friday, including 9,876 fatalities.
