The Department of Health (DOH) and Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) should create guidelines for an automatic travel ban to and from countries with high coronavirus (COVID-19) infections or new variants.

This way, Senator Risa Hontiveros said, the Philippine government could thwart the potential entry of more dangerous COVID-19 variants if it is quick to enforce strict guidelines against the entry of nationals coming from countries where these are reported.

Hontiveros criticized Health Secretary Francisco Duque III for initially downplaying the new double-mutant variant in India as “not concerning” despite India’s health experts revealing that this causes severe infection among children.

“Walang kalaban-kalaban ang mga bata sa double-mutation na ito, ni hindi sila pwede mabakunahan. May mga taong nakahiga na sa daan sa labas ng ospital (The children are powerless over this double-mutation, and they can’t even be vaccinated. There are people already lying on the streets outside the hospitals). Are these not concerning to the Health Secretary?” Hontiveros pointed out in a statement.

“Hihintayin pa ba natin matulad sa India? Dapat nag-iimpose ng travel ban agad-agad, (Are we going to wait for us to be like India? The government should immediately impose a travel ban),” she emphasized.

“Kaysa mangolekta tayo ng (Rather than collecting) COVID-19 variants, dapat matagal ng nag-latag ng protocols at guidelines ang IATF sa pag-impose ng mga automatic travel ban base sa mga findings ng ibang bansa na available naman sa publiko, (the IATF should lay down protocols and guidelines that impose automatic travel based on the findings of other countries that are available to the public),” she said.

Malacañang, on Tuesday, said the Philippines will ban the entry of travelers from India starting April 29 to May 14. According to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, the travel ban will cover those coming from India and those with a travel history to India within the last 14 days.

Hontiveros also lamented that the country’s COVID-19 cases are quickly catching up with Indonesia, which has the most number of total cases in ASEAN but is lagging way behind it in terms of vaccination progress.

“The numbers tell us clearly that we have the worst COVID-19 situation in the whole region. There is no denying that. Helpless na ang taumbayan sa COVID-19 lalo na hindi listo ang gobyerno sa pagpoprotekta sa ating lahat, (especially since the government is not vigilant in protecting all of us)” she said.

“I trust that the DFA will ensure the assistance and safe return of our kababayans (fellowmen) who will get affected by any travel ban. We should have learned from the very first COVID-19 cases of 2020, who were all travelers from China, that travel bans make all the difference,” she stressed.