Secretary Locsin not in Favor of Singapore Travel Ban over COVID-19

With the increase in number of confirmed cases in Singapore, the Philippine government is now considering the possibility of a Singapore travel ban. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Friday said that authorities are now weighing things whether to include Singapore among the banned countries.

“‘Yung risk assessment ipi-present ko mamaya sa inter-agency task force kung napapanahon ba na i-exclude natin ang Taiwan o Hong Kong…o kung dapat ba nating i-include ang Singapore,” Duque was quoted as saying over radio station DZMM.

However, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr. expressed his opposition to this idea. He wrote in his official twitter account the capability of Singapore in stopping the virus.

As of February 14 based on MOH daily update the confirmed cases in Singapore were 67, 17 cases have been discharged, 764 cases tested negative and with 91 pending test results. Singapore raised it’s outbreak alert last February 7 to DORSCON Orange which is the same level as with SARS(Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) back in 2003.

Under the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition(DORSCON), Orange means the disease is severe and spread easily but it has not spread widely in Singapore and is being contained. Singapore currently has no plans to raise its alert to DORSCON Red means disease is severe and spreading widely.

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