Pinuri ni Senatorial aspirant Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar ang national government para sa maagap na travel ban mula sa South Africa at iba pang bansa kung saan naitala ang bagong coronavirus disease (COVID-19) variant na tinatawag na Omicron.
“At this point, the first important step that must be taken is to ensure that this new variant will not enter the country and the government has so far made a good decision by suspending all the flights from South Africa and other countries where this variant was detected,” sabi ni Eleazar.
“Having worked with the IATF, I’ve seen adjustments that were made based on the lessons learned and the prevailing situation so I trust that we can really handle this,” dagdag nito.
Ngunit sinabi niya na walang dapat makampante kasunod ng babala ng mga eksperto na mas mabilis makahawa kaysa sa Delta variant ang bagong variant na Omicron.
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Inihayag ng Malacanang nitong Biyernes na sinuspinde na ng gobyerno ang lahat ng papasok na flight mula sa bansang may kumpirmadong kaso ng bagong variant.
Kabilang dito ang South Africa at Botswana pati na rin ang iba pang karatig na bansa gaya ng Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini at Mozambique.
Agad na nagkabisa ang suspension ng flight na tatagal hanggang Disyembre 15.
“What is important now is that we are ramping up our vaccination drive and we have booster shots, and vaccination now also include 12-17 years old,” sabi ni Eleazar.
“On the part of the public, We need to continue protecting themselves especially now that we are gradually reopening our economy. Through the help of the security sector, the minimum public health standard should be strictly enforced to avoid the spread of COVID-19 and possible entry of the new variant,” dagdag niya.
Aaron Recuenco
