The Philippines will ban recent trips to the United States since Sunday after a third state confirmed a COVID-19 case with the new strain, which experts say is more contagious.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque said foreigners who have been in the United States for the past 14 days will be denied entry, according to a statement obtained by Reuters.
The travel ban, which added to other restrictions announced on Tuesday for 19 countries and territories, is scheduled to run until January 15. .
The Philippines has decided to add the United States to the list after the country’s health and foreign affairs department suggested doing so, Roque said, according to Reuters.
Filipinos returning from the US will not be barred from entering the country, but will also have to do a 14-day quarantine in a government unit.
The new strain of the virus, called B.1.1.7, was first spotted in the UK, but has since spread to several other countries, including the US.
Florida it became the third state to confirm a case with the new version of New Year’s Eve, with Colorado and California previously announcing cases at begining of the week.
Health experts say they believe Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are effective against the variant, but more studies are needed to confirm this.
The strain has not yet made its way to the Philippines, which has recorded more than 475,000 COVID-19 cases and 9,248 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.