Malacañang said it was closely monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation in Malaysia as the Southeast Asian nation continued to grapple with a surge in infections due to the more contagious Delta variant.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque made the statement after Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the Department of Health (DOH) was studying the possibility of including Malaysia and even Thailand in the country's travel ban.
In an interview with reporters in Tarlac City, Roque said the government was closely monitoring the situation in Malaysia but admitted that his knowledge was limited to that.
"Kung binanggit na po ni Secretary Duque 'yan, I can confirm, at least, na binabantayan natin yung Malaysia (If Secretary Duque already mentioned that, then I can at least confirm that we are monitoring Malaysia)," he said on Thursday, July 16.
"Yun lang po yung alam ko na minomonitor natin very closely ang developments (That is the only thing I know-- that we are monitoring the developments very closely)," he added.
Reports showed that Thailand has been experiencing a surge of COVID-19 cases with 9,186 new infections in a single day, bringing the total number of cases to 372,215 since the pandemic started last year.
Meanwhile, Malaysia reported a record-high 13,215 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing its total infections to 880,782.
The government has imposed travel restrictions on countries with the reported transmission of the Delta variant, a strain first detected in India. So far, the Philippines has reported 19 cases of the Delta variant, all from travelers from abroad.
So far, the Philippines has eight countries in its travel ban, the latest to be added was Indonesia. The travel restrictions on these countries will be in place until the end of the month.
According to Roque, the government was not "late" in imposing the restrictions on travelers from Indonesia, citing the low number of arrivals from the said country.