Ammiel Diwayan

12 - STEM 1

A Position Paper

Novel Corona Virus Infiltration: Should China be Banned from Travelling to the Philippines?

I totally understand, agree and support the travel ban idlssued by the philippine government.
This is not to discriminate them as carriers of the deadly NCOV virus, but to help them
quarantine and to not spread the virus so that it will not become more worse than it already is.

President Rodrigo Duterte's travel ban that was prompted by the threat of the 2019 novel
coronavirus or the 2019-nCov only applies to foreign travellers, and not Filipino citizens and
holders of permanent resident-visas issued by the Philippines. This means that Filipino citizens
and holders of permanent resident visas can still fly directly from China, Hong Kong and Macau
going back to the Philippines, and outbound flights, Chinese, Hong Kong and Macau nationals
can fly back home, since they are not subject to the travel-ban directive, but will undergo
quarantine procedures upon arrival (Arcilla, 2020).

Starting from December of 2019 to the start of the year 2020, there have been so many cases
that were reported about a new and very deadly virus called the Novel Corona Virus or simply
known as the NCOV. It is an airborne disease that is easily transmitted and is hard to kill. The
virus originated in Wuhan, China and has caused a lot of deaths and casualties to the Chinese
people. As of now, the reported cases of the NCOV is 45,166, number of deaths rouse up to
1,115 and 4,784 recovered worldwide (Worldometer: Corona Virus Updates, 2020). These is
due to the transmission of the virus from the chinese people who were infected by the virus
and are desperately trying to get out of their country.

The novel corona virus' fatality rate as said by the World Health Organization was 2.0% but has
raised to 3% due to the increasing number of casualties. According to China's National Health
Commission (NHC), about 80% of those who died were over the age of 60 and 75% of them had
pre-existing health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. They also found out
that people of all ages can be infected by the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Older people, and
people with pre-existing medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease) appear to
be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus.

In the Philippines, there has been a total of 284 persons that have been probed for the novel
coronavirus and 1 death (DOH). The 44 year old male from Wuhan who was admitted on Jan. 25
after experiencing fever, cough, and sore throat, before developing severe pneumonia was the
first record of a person who has nCOV and died in the Philippines. Another is a 38-year-old
Chinese woman who also came from Wuhan but later was released after finding out that she
was negative of the virus.

These fatalities are more of a reason why the country should issue a travel ban not only in
China but also for the other countries that were infected by the virus. I repeat, this is not to
discriminate or prohibit them of their rights, but only to protect our citizens and at the same
time help them quarantine and rehabilitate until the virus is fully wiped out from the planet.