Philippines temporarily bars foreign travelers from 4 countries
MANILA, Philippines — The government’s pandemic task force is barring the entry of foreign travelers from Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Serbia and Slovenia from September 19 to September 30 as it places these countries on the Red List.
Areas on the Red List are considered by the task force to be “high risk” for COVID-19. Foreign travelers coming from or who have been to these areas, regardless of their vaccination status, cannot enter the Philippines.
However, foreign passengers who only transited through an area in the Red List can be allowed entry to the country subject to entry, testing and quarantine protocols, provided that they only stayed in the airport the whole time and were not cleared for entry by the red-listed area’s immigration authorities.
Filipinos returning home from Red List areas via repatriation and Bayanihan flights may be allowed back, subject to entry, testing and quarantine protocols.
These protocols include undergoing a 14-day quarantine, the first 10 days of which are spent in a quarantine facility and the remaining four days spent under home quarantine at their local government of destination.
On the seventh day of quarantine, they will be swabbed to test for COVID-19. Regardless of results, they will still complete the full quarantine period.
Meanwhile, the pandemic task force placed the following areas on the Green List, or territories which are at low risk for COVID-19.
- American Samoa
- Burkina Faso
- Cameroon
- Cayman Islands
- Chad
- China
- Comoros
- Republic of the Congo
- Djibouti
- Equatorial Guinea
- Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
- Gabon
- Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China)
- Hungary
- Madagascar
- Mali
- Federated States of Micronesia
- Montserrat
- New Caledonia
- New Zealand
- Niger
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Palau
- Poland
- Saba (Special Municipality of the Kingdom of Netherlands
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- Sierra Leone
- Sint Eustatius
- Taiwan
- Algeria
- Bhutan
- Cook Islands
- Eritrea
- Kiribati
- Marshall Islands
- Nauru
- Nicaragua
- Niue
- North Korea
- Saint Helena
- Samoa
- Solomon Islands
- Sudan
- Syria
- Tajikstan
- Tanzania
- Tokelau
- Tonga
- Turkmenistan
- Tuvalu
- Vanuatu
- Yemen
Inbound travelers from "green" territories who are fully vaccinated only need to go through a seven-day quarantine and a RT-PCR test in a government-accredited facility on their fifth day, with their day of arrival already counted as the first day.
All other territories not mentioned are placed by the pandemic task force on the Yellow List, or areas where there is moderate risk for COVID-19.
All inbound travelers from areas on the Yellow List, regardless of their vaccination status, must quarantine for 14 days, with the first 10 days spent in a quarantine facility and the remaining four days spent under home quarantine at their local government of destination.
They will also be required to get tested for COVID-19 on the seventh day of quarantine. Regardless of their results, they must complete the full quarantine period. — Xave Gregorio
Find the latest travel and tourism news from around the world amid the coronavirus pandemic. Main image by AFP/Romeo Gacad
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The association added that its 2022 losses were half as bad as previously estimated at $3.6 billion.
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People hoping to take advantage of a Hong Kong scheme to give away half a million free airline tickets face hours-long online queues on Wednesday, as the Asian financial hub bids to woo tourists back.
The city last month launched a campaign to reboot its reputation as "Asia's world city", after years of strict pandemic-related travel restrictions and a crackdown on sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.
On Wednesday, Hong Kong became one of the last places in the world to drop its outdoor mask mandate, which city leader John Lee said was a sign that it was "resuming normalcy". — AFP
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The national carrier posted a second-half profit of Aus$1.43 billion (US$974 million) before tax, after accumulating Aus$7 billion in losses across the previous three years.
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