Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the government is looking at the possible inclusion of Malaysia and Thailand in the existing travel ban due to the threat of Delta variant.

“We are looking at Malaysia… we are also looking at Thailand where the unavoidable increase of Delta Variant cases continued,” he said.

“We are monitoring that. We have a surveillance system there in our epidemiology bureau. They are coordinating with their counterparts to give us the signal if it is time for us to have an expanded travel ban in additional countries,” he added.

Despite the threat of the Delta variant cases in other neighboring countries, Duque sald  the Philippines have enough number of quarantine facilities.

“So far, we have enough quarantine beds and rooms. We include here the hotels on top of our mega quarantine facilities. So far everything is okay,” he said.

Duque said that with improved health system capacity, the country is prepared to handle Delta variant cases.

“We have improved our health system capacity. So have more ICU beds, more isolation beds, more treatment monitoring facilities, monitoring and isolation facilities. We were able to increase all these in case it enters (the country. At least we are prepared to handle cases of Delta variant,” he said. Robina Asido/DMS