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MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines did not impose a travel restriction on travellers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because it did not report presence of the new COVID-19 variant, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Thursday, a day after a male Quezon City resident tested positive for the said variant after arriving from Dubai last week.
“Unang una, hindi po sila nag report kung meron ba silang UK variant. Wala po silang lumalabas na batayan para sabihin na sila ay meron na,” Duque said in a televised briefing.
(First of all, they did not report if they have the UK variant. They did not have basis to declare it.)
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III (Screengrab from Kapihan sa Manila Bay video interview)
“Pero ngayon, we have the evidence to tell them, you have the UK variant now,” he added.
(But now, we have evidence to tell them, you have the UK variant now.)
His female partner, however, who was with him in Dubai tested negative for the new coronavirus variant and is under strict quarantine and monitoring.
Duque said he will recommend the inclusion of UAE in the list of countries with travel restrictions to the Philippines.
“Nung una kasi, wala silang report, walang international health regulation notification na meron sila nitong variant na ito. Pero ngayon alam na nila, pinadala na namin sa kanila,” he said.
(At first, they did not have any report, they don’t have any international health regulation notification that they have this variant. But now they know, we notified them already.)