The government has trimmed down the list of "green" or low coronavirus risk countries, a category that allows their fully vaccinated travelers to undergo shorter quarantine upon arrival in the Philippines.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has revised the list of "green" nations, bringing the number to 51 from 57 as the country faces a coronavirus virus surge driven by the Delta variant.
Removed from the green list are Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Curacao, Greenland, Iceland, Isle of Man, Israel, Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Turks and Caicos Islands (UK) and Vietnam.
The task force, however, added Bulgaria, Dijibouti, Equatorial Guinea, French Polynesia, Moldova, Poland, and Slovakia to the green list instead.
The task force earlier issued health guidelines for vaccinated travelers who stayed in these "green" countries, including a seven-day quarantine at a facility instead of the usual 10 days, when arriving in the country.
The “green” countries/jurisdictions are those classified by the Department of Health as “low risk” countries/jurisdictions based on disease incidence rate.
These vaccinated traveler must take a swab coronavirus test on the fifth day of facility-based quarantine. If a passenger tests negative, the individual must complete the seven-day facility-based quarantine. If found positive, the traveler must follow the prescribed isolation protocols.
The countries under the revised green list are the following:
- Albania
- American Samoa
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Australia
- Azerbaijan
- Benin
- Bermuda
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Cayman Islands
- Chad
- China
- Comoros
- Cote d’ Ivoire (Ivory Coast
- Dominica
- Djibouti
- Equatorial Guinea
- Falkland Islands
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Ghana
- Grenada
- Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China)
- Hungary
- Kosovo
- Laos
- Mali
- Marshall Islands
- Federated States of Micronesia
- Moldova
- Montserrat
- New Caledonia
- New Zealand
- Niger
- Nigeria
- North Macedonia
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Palau
- Poland
- Romania
- Saba (Special Municipality of the Kingdom of Netherlands)
- Saint Barthelemy
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- Singapore
- Sint Eustatius
- Slovakia
- Taiwan
- Togo
The last time the green list was updated by the government pandemic task force was mid-July. The original list was released on June 30 to screen the entry of vaccinated travelers into the country.
READ: Gov't updates list of 'green' or low COVID risk countries
READ: PH names China, Israel among ‘green’ or low COVID-19 risk countries