Philippine Government spokesman Harry Roque announced that the country will extend the entry ban on all visitors from India and nine other countries until the end of August due to concerns about the spread of the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The Philippine government has approved the proposal of the COVID-19 response force to extend the ban on visitors from 10 countries from August 16-31.

This ban was first imposed on April 27 and has been extended several times. In addition to India, other countries on the list above include Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Philippine authorities are trying to control the high number of COVID-19 cases in the past four months. August 12 is the second consecutive day that the daily number of new cases in this country exceeds 12,000. The Manila metropolitan area, consisting of 16 cities and home to 13 million residents, is currently under strict lockdown to curb the spread of the Delta variant. Meanwhile, the Philippine Government is speeding up the vaccination drive as only about 11 percent of the country's 110 million population has received the full doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

To date, the Philippines has recorded a total of 1,700,363 cases of COVID-19, including 29,539 deaths.

Source: VNA