Philippines banned African countries until 15th December. What you need to know if you transit from those countries.

Cabinet Secretary, 

Acting Spokesperson

26 November 2021

On heightened border control measures to prevent the entry of the B.1.1. 529 variant

The Inter-Agency Task Force  approved on Friday, November 26, 2021, the temporary suspension of inbound international flights from South Africa, Botswana, and other countries with local cases or with the likelihood of occurrences of the B.1.1.1529 variant. This shall take effective immediately and until 15 December 2021. 

The Bureau of Quarantine, in close coordination with our local government units, has been directed to locate travelers from the abovementioned countries who may have arrived in the recent 7 days prior to the temporary suspension of inbound travel. These travelers shall be required to undergo full 14-day facility-based quarantine with RT-PCR test on the 7th day or upon location of the passenger, whichever is later, with the date of arrival as Day 1. 

The Inter-Agency Task Force likewise approved the temporary suspension of inbound international flights from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Mozambique, which are adjacent to South Africa and Botswana. Passengers coming from or having been to these abovementioned countries within the last 14 days prior to arrival shall be temporarily barred from entering the country.  

Passengers already in transit from the abovementioned countries and all those who have been to the same within 14 days immediately preceding arrival in the Philippines, who arrive before 12:01AM of November 28, 2021, shall not be barred from entry, but shall be required to undergo stricter quarantine and testing protocols such as the observation of an absolute facility-based 14-day quarantine period, notwithstanding a negative RT-PCR result. 

Meanwhile, all passengers, whether Filipinos or foreigners, merely transiting through the abovementioned countries shall not be deemed as having come from or having been to the said country if they stayed in the airport the entire time and were not cleared for entry into such country by its immigration authorities.  

Finally, upon arrival in the Philippines, passengers covered by the immediately preceding paragraph shall comply with existing testing and quarantine protocols. ###

South African scientist de Oliveira said in a media briefing held by the South Africa Department of Health on Thursday that the variant contains a "unique constellation" of more than 30 mutations to the spike protein, the component of the virus that binds to cells. This is significantly more than those of the delta variant.

Many of these mutations are linked to increased antibody resistance, which may affect how the virus behaves with regard to vaccines, treatments and transmissivity, health officials have said.

In total, de Oliveira said the variant contains around 50 mutations. The receptor binding domain (the part of the virus that first makes contact with cells) has 10 mutations, far greater than just two for the delta Covid variant, which spread rapidly earlier this year to become the dominant strain worldwide.

This level of mutation means it's possible that it came from a single patient who could not clear the virus, giving it the chance to genetically evolve. The same hypothesis was proposed for the alpha Covid variant.

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