“Foreigners from the US have been added to the list of those restricted. However, aliens from the US eligible for entry that arrive prior to January 3 will be allowed to enter but will be referred to the One-Stop Shop for an absolute facility-based 14-day quarantine period,” Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said in an advisory issued on Saturday.
It all sounded exciting and promising. The dream of finally meeting roos and koalas or any odd-looking marsupial face-to-face in dreamland Terra Australis was to fulfill at last. And perhaps, I might fall in love with Victoria and settle on her shores permanently or so I thought. It was a chilly cold wet April morning on the southern hemisphere, when a huge bloke named Craig, a farmer of Scottish descent, approached and asked if I were 'Balcos' -- I was muddled up with uncertain emotions as he wasn't sympathetic at all. But I was sleepy-eyed from the tumultuous journey so tarrying along was the best thing I can do. We had to drive about 3 hours northwestwards to a tiny town called Minyip.
In a follow-up media briefing after Mayor Lucilo Bayron announced the first COVID-19 case, city and health officials defended their decision to allow the patient to travel to Clark International Airport en route back to Australia on March 17, and before his test results from the Regional Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) arrived.
Operated by AIDA Cruises based in London, United Kingdom, the passenger cruise ship was welcomed Sunday at around 6 a.m. by representatives of the City Tourism Office (CTO), the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), and other related agencies at the city port.
Dr. Celia Lamkin, chair and founder of National Youth Movement for West Philippine Sea (NYMWPS), in a press statement called the government’s attention to impose the total ban for public health and safety citing the widespread of confirmed cases in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Hongkong, Vietnam, Malaysia , Nepal, Australia, USA, Canada, France, Nepal, and lately, Cambodia.
DOH Undersecretary Eric Domingo reported that the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine will no longer be sending tests for confirmation to Australia because the reagents and the primers it ordered have arrived.
Dr. Audie Cipriano, chief of the medical professional staff of the ONP, said Saturday in an interview with Palawan News that the 10-year-old Brazilian girl arrived at 1 a.m. with her family from El Nido and was immediately isolated.
