Philippines studying lowered quarantine restrictions on yellow-list countries

A technical working group was looking into possibly easing quarantine protocols for inbound Filipino travelers amid the approaching Christmas holiday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Friday.

When questioned if the government was looking to add more countries to the “green” list or lower quarantine restrictions on travelers from countries in the “yellow” list, Roque said he could only confirm that the matter was being studied.

“Dahil syempre, mas gusto natin na mag-enganyo ng mga kapwa Pilipino na umuwi no,” Roque said in a press briefing.

(Of course, we want to encourage our fellow Filipinos to come home.)

“Titignan po natin ang siyensya, titignan po natin ang datos, at pinagaaralan po ‘yan. Hindi po ‘yan isinantabi. As we are speaking, experts are studying the matter,” Roque said at a press briefing.

(We will look at the science, we will look at the data, and we are studying it. We did not set it aside. As we are speaking, experts are studying the matter.)

Meanwhile, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they had received several requests from embassies regarding this.

“[T]here have been several requests already coming from different embassies na pagisipan natin at tignan through the IATF dahil may mga foreign relations tayo with them,” she said.

(There have been several requests coming from different embassies asking us to consider the matter through the IATF because we have relations with their countries.)

Vergeire also emphasized that whatever the government's decision, it would be based on the system being used.

“I would just like to say that we still base it on science and we still base it on the system that we have right now. But of course pinagaaralan nga po and magbibigay tayo ng information in the next days (it is being studied and we will provide information),” she said.

The Philippines on Thursday logged 1,766 new COVID-19 cases, marking the second consecutive day where less than 2,000 cases were reported. — DVM, GMA News