Wuhan coronavirus: Duterte under pressure to ban Chinese tourists after Philippines confirms first infection

Country reports first confirmed case one day after another suspected victim died in hospital

Politicians and doctors are among those leading calls for a temporary ban on all travel to and from China

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Passengers from Guangzhou, China, arriving at immigration in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines. Photo: EPA

Published: 8:32pm, 30 Jan 2020Updated: 12:31am, 19 Mar 2020

The first confirmed case of the Wuhan coronavirus in the Philippines has heaped further pressure on President Rodrigo Duterte to introduce a temporary ban on all travel to and from China.

Doctors, politicians and members of the ethnic Chinese community had already been demanding the measure before a Chinese tourist visiting from Wuhan – the city at the centre of the outbreak – tested positive for the virus on Thursday.

The discovery prompted the Department of Health secretary Francisco Duque to immediately recommend a temporary ban on all travellers from Hubei province.

But some experts urged the president to go even further, with Dr Anthony Leachon, a former president of the Philippine College of Physicians, recommending a “total ban”, and the Akbayan Party Senator Risa Hontiveros demanding a 30-day ban on all air and sea travel to China and a “mandatory quarantine” period for all Chinese travellers.

The Bureau of Immigration has already stopped issuing tourist visas on arrival to Chinese nationals, but has not yet responded to Duque’s latest proposal, which came on the same day 50 Chinese tourists arrived in Duterte’s home city of Davao on a Xiamen Air flight from Jinjiang. At present, Chinese tourists with visas from tour operators that were approved before Tuesday’s ban can still enter the country.

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