Philippines: Travel ban on 10 countries extended until August 15
MANILA: The Duterte administration has extended until August 15 a ban on travelers from 10 countries in an effort to curb the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19.
Harry Roque, spokesperson for the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), announced Friday that the following countries still have travel restrictions in place:
- India
- Pakistan
- nepal
- sri lanka
- Bangladesh
- Oman
- united arab emirates
- Indonesia
- Malaysia
- Thailand
The Asian country’s COVID-19 positivity rate (the percentage of people who tested positive) climbed to 16.2% on Thursday, the highest level in three months, according to the health ministry. That was the highest level since April 29, when it was at 16.3%.
The rate is classified as “high” by the US nonprofit Covid Act Now’s metrics, which are also used by the IATF as a reference. A geographic area is considered adequately tested when its positivity rate is less than 3 percent; when the percentage exceeds 20 percent, it is undertested.
As of Thursday, 176 more people died from the disease, and the death toll also jumped to 27,577, accounting for 1.75% of the national death toll.
This story is breaking and being updated…