The Philippines has announced that it is extending restrictions on travel from eight countries with rising cases of COVID-19’s Delta variant.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has extended the travel restriction from July 15, 2021, until July 31, 2021.
The restriction covers India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Oman, where a fresh surge in COVID-19 is being attributed to the Delta variant.
The ban will also apply to everyone coming from Indonesia or those with recent travel history to the country and will be imposed from July 16 to 31.
The Philippine government first issued a travel restriction for India in April, after it registered the first case of the Delta variant.
The travel restriction was later expanded to include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, UAE, and Oman.
The restrictions prevented hundreds of Filipino migrant workers from coming home.
The Philippines on Wednesday confirmed 3,806 more COVID-19 cases, with total active infections the lowest in more than four months.
Based on the latest bulletin of the Department of Health, the country now has 1,485,457 total recorded coronavirus cases, of which 44,408 or 3 percent are active.
The number of those still battling the disease is the fewest since March 9 this year, said a report from online news site ABS-CBN.
The day’s positivity rate is back at 11 percent, based on the samples collected from 31,987 individuals who got screened for the disease on Monday.
For the past two days, the positivity rate stood below 11 percent.
COVID-related deaths increased to 26,232 after 140 additional fatalities were recorded. The case fatality rate is at 1.77 percent, the highest since March 31.
There were 6,296 recoveries, bringing the total recuperations to 1,414,817 or 95.2 percent of the cumulative total infections.
