Lapu-Lapu Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan. | Photo from Lapu-Lapu City PIO
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu—Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan put on hold his plan to allow the resumption of international flights at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA).
Chan made this statement after another strain of the coronavirus has surfaced from the United Kingdom (UK).
Read: PH braces for threat of new virus variant
“Tungod sa bag-ong UK strain, gi-put on hold lang sa nato ang atong plano for the international flights,” Chan said.
(Because of the new UK strain of the coronavirus, we put on hold the plan for the international flights.)
Aside from this, Chan also postponed a meeting with Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia to discuss the guidelines for the resumption of international flights at the Cebu airport.
Read: Chan to ask IATF to allow resumption of int’l flights in MCIA
“Mag-meeting man unta mi adtong December 29, unya na-postpone ug gisibog sa first week of January. Pero ipa-reset nalang pod to nako,” he added.
(We were supposed to meet on December 29, and it was moved to the first week of January. But we will also have that reset.)
Chan said that he will decide after January 15, 2021, whether they will pursue the plan based on the developments on the new strain of the coronavirus.
Chan is set to meet, either Wednesday (December 30) or Thursday (December 31), officials of MCIA to coordinate and discuss the travel ban of countries having infections of the new strain of the virus.
Read: Labella wants ‘granular lockdowns’ in Cebu City in case of surge of new COVID-19 variant
MCIA announced that starting Wednesday, the airport will prohibit the entry of passengers arriving from countries with a reported new variant of SARS-CoV-2, in compliance with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) resolution nos. 90 and 91.
These countries are Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and UK.
Read: New COVID-19 strain not likely to affect vaccine development, experts say
/bmjo