PH halts issuance of visa in Iran due to COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — The government will stop issuing visas in Iran as a measure to stop the spread of COVID-19, which infected more than 2,000 people in the Middle Eastern country, an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Thursday.

“Noong naglabas ang IATF (inter-agency task force) noong parang lookout sa Iran, napag-utusan na po namin ang Embassy sa Iran na isuspend muna ang visa issuance,” DFA Undersecretary Brigido Dulay told reporters at the sidelines of Commission on Elections workshop for May 2022 elections which was held in Manila.

(After the IATF released a lookout for Iran, we already asked the Embassy in Iran to stop issuance of visa there.)

Recent reports showed that 92 individuals in Iran already died due the deadly disease which makes the it among the countries with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths outside China.

Despite this development, Dulay insisted that the government will not impose travel restrictions on Iran.

“We are not doing that (travel ban on Iran) because at the end of the day those coming from Iran cannot come to the Philippines because they don’t have visa,” the DFA official said.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said there is no travel ban on Iran as there is a low volume of travelers from Iran in the Philippines.

“IATF felt that the ban for Iran is not called for as of now, yung volume of travelers mababa. (Volume of travelers is low) ’Yung risk of spread, risk of entering the Philippines, mababa rin (Risk of spread and entering the Philippines is also low). We leave it at that,” Duque told reporters at the DOH main office.

EDV