GOVERNMENT is studying the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) to expand the travel ban on travelers coming from India to include other countries with high passenger traffic from India to prevent the Indian variant of the coronavirus from spreading to Philippine communities, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said yesterday.
There are no direct flights from India to the Philippines. Travelers, however, have transit stops in Hong Kong and Middle East countries.
Roque said expanding the travel ban could affect many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), especially those working in the Middle East.
“Ang warning nga po ng WHO, kinakailangan din na isama sa travel ban iyong mga lugar kung saan mataas ang traffic involving passengers from India, at kasama po diyan iyong Middle East. So iyan po ang problema ngayon dahil hindi naman natin pupuwedeng i-ban ang mga bansa, ang mga biyahero galing sa Middle East lalung-lalo na dahil ang dami nating OFWs doon. [Pero] pinag-aaralan po ngayon iyan (WHO said the travel ban should include places with high traffic of travelers from India and that includes the Middle East.
That is a problem because we cannot ban those coming from the Middle East because there are many OFWS working there. [But] that is now being studied),” Roque said.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show there are about 2.2 million OFWs in the Middle East as of 2019.
The Philippine government has prohibited the entry of all travelers from India, including Filipinos, from April 29 to May 14 after India recorded the highest number of 401,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 cases in a day, and recorded an average of 3,000 deaths daily.
Medical experts believe that the presence of double and triple mutant variants of the coronavirus in India are responsible for the sudden surge in COVID-19 cases
A Reuters report said the Indian COVID-19 variant has now reached at least 17 countries including Britain, Switzerland and Iran, leading several governments to close their borders to people travelling from India.
The WHO said the Indian variant has been found in over 1,200 sequences uploaded to the GISAID open-access database from at least 17 countries. The sequences were mostly seen in countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and Singapore.
Experts at WHO believe that the Indian variant is more transmissible than the previous variants of COVID-19 and it may even have the ability to dodge vaccine protection.
India on Monday reported more than 300,000 new coronavirus cases for a 12th straight day to take its overall caseload to just shy of 20 million, as scientists predicted a peak in infections in the coming days.
With 368,147 new cases recorded over the past 24 hours, India’s total infections stand at 19.93 million, while total fatalities rose by 3,417 to 218,959, according to health ministry data.
Medical experts say real numbers across the country of 1.35 billion may be five to 10 times higher than the official tally.
The health ministry offered a glimmer of hope, reporting that positive cases relative to the number of tests conducted fell on Monday for the first time since at least April 15.
India’s coronavirus cases may peak between May 3 to 5, according to a mathematical model from a team of scientists advising the government, a few days earlier than a previous estimate as the virus has spread faster than expected.
Hospitals have filled to capacity, medical oxygen supplies have run short and morgues and crematoriums have been swamped as the country deals with the surge in cases.
At least 11 states and union territories have imposed some form of restrictions to try and stem infections, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is reluctant to impose a national lockdown, concerned about the economic impact.
“In my opinion, only a national stay at home order and declaring medical emergency will help to address the current healthcare needs,” Bhramar Mukherjee, an epidemiologist with the University of Michigan said on Twitter.
“The number of active cases is accumulating, not just the daily new cases. Even the reported numbers state there are around 3.5M active cases.”
The spike in infections is India’s biggest crisis since Modi took office in 2014. Modi has been criticised for not taking steps earlier to curb the spread and for letting millions of largely unmasked people attend religious festivals and crowded political rallies in five states during March and April.
A forum of scientific advisers set up by the government warned Indian officials in early March of a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus taking hold in the country, five scientists who are part of the forum told Reuters.
Despite the warning, four of the scientists said the federal government did not seek to impose major restrictions to stop the spread of the virus.
Leaders of 13 opposition parties on Sunday signed a letter urging Modi to immediately launch free national vaccination and to prioritize oxygen supply to hospitals and health centers.
Several states have postponed widening a vaccination drive for adults that was to start on Saturday due to a lack of vaccines. The national health ministry says states have 10 million vaccines stockpiled and 2 million more coming in the next three days. — With Reuters
