The government is considering a travel ban on passenger flights from Indonesia because of the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the Southeast Asian country.
In an online press briefing last Monday, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) will consider the travel ban to prevent the entry of the Delta Variant in the country.
He noted the government is also closely monitoring backdoor entries in Mindanao, since it is closest to Indonesia.
Despite Indonesia’s ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive, it suffered a surge of infections among its population.
Among the fatalities in the latest wave of infections in Indonesia are 12 doctors, who already got their two doses of the Covid-19 jab from Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech.
Despite this development in Indonesia, Roque maintained that Sinovac remains effective against Covid-19, stating it was approved by both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as the World Health Organization (WHO).
“I put my faith on the experts, who said that the Sinovac like all the vaccines that we provide [to our citizens] are safe and effective,” Roque said.