SEN. Grace Poe prodded the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Tuesday to promptly come up with a clear policy on China arrivals, stressing such guidance is “urgently needed,” amid fears of possible Covid-19 spread in the country.
“While we are all still reeling from the effects of the airport shutdown,” the senator suggested, “The Executive should anticipate another pressing issue on the need for Covid testing requirements for all travelers arriving from China ahead of the expected lifting of Chinese travel restrictions on January 8.”
Poe pointed out that other countries like the US, UK, France, Canada, Japan, South Korea, India, Israel, Morocco, Italy and Spain “have all reimposed their mandatory Covid tests and other rules on arrivals from China.”
Stressing the need for the government to “decide definitively on the matter and inform all travelers beforehand,” the senator cautioned that the “lack of proactive policies on the matter is concerning amid the rapidly developing situation overseas.”
At the same time, Poe recalled, “Our experience in the past three years of the pandemic has shown that delayed and uninformed Covid-related policies are sometimes more deadly than the pandemic itself.”
The senator also reminded, “Now that we have reopened again, we need to build confidence that the Philippines is well-positioned and, hopefully, now better informed in the fight against Covid.”