Malacañang announced last Friday the country may soon reopen its doors to fully vaccinated foreign tourist from China, Japan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and other green-listed countries.
In an online press conference, Acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) is Resolution 149 allowing the implementation of the said measure as soon as the necessary guidelines for it is finalized.
“There are just a few things we need to tweak, but the reason we are announcing it is because we are putting the entire world in advanced notice that we would eventually open up our shores to tourists from green list countries,” Nograles said.
The newly appointed IATF spokesperson noted that the measure aims to boost the recovery of the country’s tourism industry, which was among the hard-hit industries by international travel restrictions amid the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
Last week, the IATF included the following countries in its “green” list: American Samoa, Bhutan, Chad, China (Mainland), Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Federated States of Micronesia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China), India, Indonesia, Japan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands, Montserrat, and Morocco.
The other green list countries are Namibia, Niger, Northern Mariana Islands, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Paraguay, Rwanda, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sint Eustatius, South Africa, Sudan, Taiwan, Togo, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
In a related development, Nograles also said the IATF also issued Resolution No. 149-A containing the new guidelines for countries in the red, yellow and green list, which will take effect starting on Monday.
Among the salient points of the said issuance is it clarification that Filipinos or foreigners, merely transiting through a non-Green List countries/territories/jurisdictions shall not be deemed as having come from or having been to said areas if they stayed in the airport the whole time.
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