The Department of Health (DOH) said that imposing travel restrictions on all countries with confirmed cases of Omicron variant is “not rational.”

DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the aspect of health and economy should be balanced.

“Kailangan din natin intindihin na unang una, as I've said, we balance health and economy here. We cannot close our borders to the rest of the world na nagkaroon lang ng isang Omicron variant sa isang bansa...We cannot do that, we need to understand kung paano po ito makakaapekto sa ating ekonomiya and our foreign relations. But of course public health pa rin lagi ang priority natin (We also need to understand, as I've said, we balance health and economy here. We cannot close our borders to the rest of the world, even those with only single cases of Omicron... We cannot do that, we need to understand how it will affect our economy and our foreign relations. But of course public health is still our priority),” said Vergeire on Thursday, Dec. 16.

“Sa tingin natin sa ngayon, it is not rational for us to close our borders to countries na meron lang kahit isa. And usually, itong mga bansa na meron lang kahit isa na mga Omicron, usually mga imported cases po ito (Right now, it is not rational for us to close our borders to countries that only have at least one case. And usually, these countries that have at least one Omicron case— these are imported cases),” she added.

Vergeire made the statement amid the proposal of health advocate Dr. Tony Leachon to impose a total travel ban to prevent transmission of this new variant of coronavirus.

“Yung mga recommendations atin po iyang pinag-aaralan lahat (These recommendations are being studied),” she said.

“Ang pinaka importante, maisara po natin ang ating border sa mga bansa na meron local transmission. Ibig sabihin kumakalat na po ang sakit sa kanilang bansa (What's important is to close our borders to countries with local transmission. It means that the disease is spreading in their country),” she added.

There were eight countries and territories on the Philippines’ "red list” due to the high incidence of COVID-19. This means travelers from these areas will be prohibited from entering the country starting Dec. 16 to 31. These include Andorra, France, Monaco, Northern Mariana Islands, Reunion, San Marino, South Africa, and Switzerland.

READ: COVID red list countries down to 8; over 40 nations in green list