{"id":243867,"date":"2020-02-02T22:24:52","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T03:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=243867"},"modified":"2020-02-02T22:24:52","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T03:24:52","slug":"returning-ofws-to-china-not-covered-by-ncov-travel-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/02\/02\/returning-ofws-to-china-not-covered-by-ncov-travel-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Returning OFWs to China not covered by nCoV travel ban"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The directive announces the “temporary ban on Filipinos from travel to China and its Special Administrative Regions,” which according to Sta. Romana only covers “Filipino tourists”. (File Photo<\/a>: Bureau of Immigration, Philippines\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u00a0<\/strong>— Filipinos with work permits in China and its special administrative regions are not covered in the travel ban imposed by Malaca\u00f1ang in response to the 2019-novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak, the Philippine Embassy in Beijing said Sunday.<\/p>\n

“Overseas Filipino workers are not prohibited from returning to China if they have a visa and work permit there,” Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago Sta. Romana told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).<\/p>\n

This comes as President Rodrigo Duterte issued a directive in an attempt to contain the fast-spreading novel coronavirus.<\/p>\n

The directive announces the “temporary ban on Filipinos from travel to China and its Special Administrative Regions,” which according to Sta. Romana only covers “Filipino tourists”.<\/p>\n

The said order also contains the travel ban on “the entry of any person, regardless of nationality, except Filipinos directly coming from China and its special administrative regions”.<\/p>\n

Before the Philippine government restricted the entry of visitors coming from China, the 2019-nCoV’s epicenter, Beijing had earlier banned all outbound tour groups in a bid to contain the outbreak.<\/p>\n

READ: DOT urges public, tourists to take precautions vs. 2019-nCoV<\/a><\/p>\n

Although the tourism industry is projected to bear the brunt of the slump in the number of big-spending Chinese tourists, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said the safety of Filipino citizens and travelers alike remains a top priority as it assured the implementation of the chief executive’s order.<\/p>\n

“While the DOT is mandated to encourage, promote, and develop tourism as a major socio-economic activity, at this time our first priority is ensuring the health, safety, and well-being of all,” Tourism chief Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Puyat urged the public to “stay informed and abide by the suggested guidelines issued by our health department to minimize risk and help stem the spread of the coronavirus.”<\/p>\n

“For your safety, we ask for your full cooperation and understanding at this time,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Filipinos with work permits in China and its special administrative regions are not covered in the travel ban imposed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":229654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-joyce-ann-l-rocamora","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243868,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243867\/revisions\/243868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}