Passengers from Austria have been added to the list of countries from whom travelers are restricted from entering the country, according to the Bureau of Immigration on Saturday.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said foreign passengers coming from or having been to Austria 14 days prior to arrival in the Philippines shall be prohibited from entering the country.
“The restriction for those coming from Austria will start at 12:01 midnight of January 10, and will be in effect until January 15,” he said.
The Austrian restriction brings the total number of restricted countries to 28.
The expanded travel restrictions were directed by Malacanang following the reported new South African variant of the coronavirus.
Earlier, the government imposed a ban on travelers from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Australia, Israel, The Netherlands, Hong Kong SAR, Switzerland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Lebanon, Singapore, Sweden, South Korea, South Africa, Canada, Spain, and the United States.
Portugal, India, Finland, Norway, Jordan, and Brazil were added to the list on Friday.
Morente clarified that Filipinos coming from the said countries will be allowed entry but will be referred to the airport’s one stop shop to “undergo an absolute facility-based 14-day quarantine period, notwithstanding a negative RT-PCR result,” he added.
Those who will be merely transiting in the 28 banned countries will not be required to undergo the 14-day quarantine but will still have to undergo regular protocols for arriving passengers.
“They will be considered transiting if they merely stayed in the airport, were just there for a layover, and were not cleared for entry by immigration authorities in the said countries,” said Morente.