Heads up, travel junkies! You can finally fly out of the country starting October 21 for non-essential travel purposes as announced by Malacañang on Friday, October 16, 2020.
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According to the Palace, the decision to lift the travel ban for locals was made last Thursday, October 15, during a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).
"In the same 79th meeting, the IATF lifted the restriction of non-essential outbound travel of Filipinos effective October 21, 2020," announced Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque.
Along with the official statement is a list of guidelines and requirements that Filipinos are required to follow and/or secure should they opt to travel out of the country for leisure. You may read up on them below:
- -Submission of confirmed roundtrip tickets
- -Adequate travel and health insurance for those traveling in tourist visas
- -Execution of an immigration declaration acknowledging the risks involved in traveling
- -Negative Antigen result taken within 24 hours before departure, subject to the Department of Health guidelines
Upon their return, Filipino travelers must adhere to the protocols set by the National Task Force for OFWs. Included in this are mandatory COVID-19 testing and quarantine until they turn up negative for the virus.
The ban on non-essential outbound travel was one of the country's initial precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, allowing only work-related travels abroad for Filipinos.
Now that travel restrictions are being eased, the Philippines is hoping to bounce back from the seven months of lockdown that severely affected the country's tourism.
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