The Philippines is the home of Boracay, Palawan, Siargao, Puerto Princesa, and other eye-catching locations that could be on everyone’s travel bucket list. It is a perfect destination for a tropical escapade. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the authorities have decided to shut down and close the borders to prevent the possible spread of disease and transfer from one country to another.
Last January, the officials have announced that the Philippines will reopen its borders to fully vaccinated travelers from most countries on February 10 and will remove quarantine rules, nearly two years after closing them to contain the coronavirus. The announcement allows for the resumption of visa-free travel for short visits by people of the 157 countries that had previously been granted visa-free entrance to the Philippines prior to the outbreak.
The reopening of the Philippines is limited to fully vaccinated international visitors and unvaccinated children under the age of 12 who are traveling with fully vaccinated foreign parents. Foreign children under the age of 12 who are traveling with their Filipino parent/s must follow the same entry, testing, and quarantine procedures as their Filipino parent/s. Those aged 12 to 17 must, however, adhere to the guidelines based on their vaccination status and must be accompanied by their parents during their facility-based quarantine.
Tourists from the countries on the list who are fully vaccinated must test negative for COVID-19 shortly before coming to the Philippines and will not be quarantined after they arrive. Tourists must have had at least two doses of whatever COVID-19 vaccine authorized by the World Health Organization, or one injection of a Johnson & Johnson vaccine, to be deemed fully vaccinated. Proof of immunization is accepted in the form of an official certificate.
Thanks to this, tourism in the Philippines may save itself after a huge plummet due to the closing of borders. Nevertheless, this decision has its own pros and cons. A lot has been wondering, should we only receive those who have their travel shots or can we now accept visitors that are yet to be vaccinated?
I know that it would be a great benefit for the country to accept unvaccinated visitors, but the real question here is: Are we ready to risk it?
We Could Be Ready
The Philippine tourism secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat noted that the reopening of our borders to eligible foreign visitors and the recovery of the tourism industry can only imply the restoration of millions of Filipinos' livelihoods who have been displaced by the epidemic working in tourism-related facilities and enterprises. It will make a significant contribution to the Philippine economy's eventual recovery. The opening of borders not only saved tourism in the Philippines but also greatly benefited those employees that lost their jobs due to the closing of borders.
When the COVID-19 infection rate in the country was so high, "perhaps even higher" than in some nations, Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire stated that it made no sense to ban international travelers.
Adding to this statement, approximately half of the Philippines' 110 million citizens have received all of their vaccines, and this is still ongoing. As more Filipinos get immunized thanks to the vaccine, we are now safer from receiving infections from outsiders or foreigners that may possibly have the virus. Thus, this may be listed as one of the reasons why we can be ready to accept tourists that are unvaccinated.
Maybe We Are Not
Sure, half of our people are vaccinated and immunized, but would that be enough?
The CDC has ranked the Philippines as a level 4 travel risk—which is considered very high risk. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Philippines has recorded over 3.5 million confirmed COVID-19 infections and 53,801 deaths, the second-highest totals in Southeast Asia behind Indonesia.
To add, the country is currently dealing with a new wave of COVID-19 infections, which are most likely caused by the more easily transmitted omicron variant. As Omicron caused a record increase in infections, the authorities imposed restrictions across the national capital region and other provinces in recent weeks. After the advent of the hyper-contagious Omicron variety, which has now swept through the Philippines, an earlier plan to welcome back tourists from December 1 was put on hold.
Going back to the previous statement, it says that the Philippines might be even higher in terms of infection rate as compared to others. This could possibly mean that there are still a lot of possible infected Filipinos that could also possibly infect foreigners that enter the border.
Whether we can get infected from the unvaccinated tourists or not—that isn’t the only matter. What if we get to be the one who infects the unvaccinated tourists?
What More Other Vaccines Do We Need?
For those who are wondering: Do I need vaccines for the Philippines? Yes, you do. Well, it isn’t just the COVID-19 vaccine you need. There are several more vaccines required in order to travel to the Philippines.
What are the required vaccinations? Here is a list of the travel shots that the CDC and WHO recommend that you need for the country:
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Typhoid
- Yellow fever
- Japanese encephalitis
- Rabies
- Meningitis
- Polio
- Measles
- Mumps and Rubella (MMR)
- TDAP (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis)
- Chickenpox
- Shingles
- Pneumonia
- Influenza
There are already a lot of travel shots needed for the Philippines, why don’t we add the COVID-19 vaccine to that list?
Are We Ready for It?
Unfortunately, when the government amended its standards for international tourists and returning Filipinos, the Philippines will ban the entry of foreign people who are not properly vaccinated against COVID-19.
While foreign visitors are exempt from facility-based quarantine, tourists are advised to continue to self-monitor and report any COVID-19 symptoms to the local government unit of their destination.
Safety is for everybody—we should protect ourselves from getting infected by the virus, and we should also consider protecting others from possibly getting infected because of us. Since we have already been requiring certain travel shots, we could simply just add one more and raise our protection.
Perhaps, barring the entry of unvaccinated tourists is a wise decision, after all.
I don’t know about you, but isn’t it better to play safely in this situation? More than the thought of not risking ourselves and our own health, let’s also think about not risking the health of the people around us.
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