Senatorial aspirant Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar lauded the national government for its timely decision to ban the travel from South Africa and other countries where the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) variant called Omicron, were detected.

“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,” said 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,” he added.

But he said there should be no room for complacency since health experts warned that the new variant is more transmissible than the Delta variant.

Malacanang announced on Friday that the government has already suspended all incoming flights from countries with confirmed cases of the new variant.

These include South Africa and Botswana as well as its other neighboring countries such as Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Mozambique.

The flight suspension took effect immediately and will last until December 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,” said 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,” he added.