Department of Health Chief Francisco Duque III believes that there’s no reason yet for the Philippines to ban all tourists from mainland China amid the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak.

Wuhan city in China is the epicenter of the outbreak that infected thousands of people globally.

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“We have to be very careful also about the possible repercussions of doing this, in light of the fact that the confirmed cases of coronaviruses are not limited to China,” he told lawmakers.

“If we do this, then the concerned country, China in this case, might question why we’re not doing this for all the other countries that have reported confirmed cases of the nCoV,” Duque added.

The Health Secretary assured the public that safety measures are in place in the event that the virus makes its way to the country.

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“Our quarantine officers are well equipped to make sure patients who will be classified as persons under investigation will be isolated, consequently they will be subjected to further evaluation,” Duque said.

House Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda proposes an overall ban on mainland Chinese to prevent the virus spread.

“Let me not be misconstrued. I just value too much the health of Filipino people. This is not actually my personal belief, but I have been asked,” Legarda said during the plenary session.

“I realize there are political and diplomatic repercussions. But for me, the health of the Filipino people, if that is at stake, we must do everything to protect our people,” Legarda reiterated.