US travel advisory vs PH part of COVID-19 border control: envoy

MANILA - The United States' travel advisory against the Philippines is part of its border control to prevent the entry of new COVID-19 variants, Manila's ambassador to Washington said Monday.

The US State Department last week issued an advisory telling its citizens to avoid traveling to the Philippines due to a "very high level of COVID-19."

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"This is very normal for them to do so. I think they have already issued this in the past when there was a big problem in the UK...The fact is they're still trying to control their borders by not having any American infected with a new variant," Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez told ANC's Headstart.

"It depends on how we manage it. The latest report we've had is we've been able to bring down the level of infection rate. That’s a good sign. If we continue along that path, most likely there will be no ban for Filipinos coming to the US."

Meantime, the delivery of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is still set in June, Romualdez said.

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Th US is prioritizing a supply of 400 million doses of vaccines for its citizens, according to Romualdez. 

It has a surplus of some 30 million jabs of AstraZeneca's jabs but cannot lend or give these to other nations due to prohibitions in an agreement signed by the Trump administration, Romualdez said.

"Filipinos travel back and forth (to the US) and a lot of Filipino-Americans go to the Philippines. The United States is well aware until we have world herd immunity, this country is not gonna be safe and that’s the reason why they are very much concerned with what’s happening with India," he said.

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