Thousands of Filipinos scrambled to get flights back to Hong Kong yesterday after President Rodrigo Duterte slapped a travel ban with immediate effect on non-Filipinos from Hong Kong, Macau and China after a tourist from Wuhan died in a Manila hospital - the first virus-linked death outside of mainland.

Philippine consulate staff said they have received inquiries, and at least two Filipino professionals working in the SAR said they were unable to get on flights to Hong Kong.

"I didn't even make it past immigration," said one.

The country's Civil Aeronautics Board said all airlines operating to and from the Philippines must comply with the presidential directive for a temporary ban of entry for any non-Filipino citizens arriving from the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.

Filipinos are also banned from travel to the three places, in effect prohibiting domestic workers from returning to the SAR.

Flights from Hong Kong were yesterday turned back to the SAR with foreign nationals rejected by Manila, while crews of those flights "who arrived and departed for Hong Kong were required to do ample time for quarantine," according to Manila International Airport general manager Ed Monreal.

Cebu Pacific announced all its fights have been canceled from yesterday until February 29 between the Philippines, Hong Kong and Macau had been.

In Hong Kong, consul general Raly Tejada tried to ease worries of some 73 Filipino association leaders at a community meeting yesterday amid the flurries of action following the death and Duterte's words.

"We need to follow the presidential directive that the airport authorities, immigration and airlines are implementing," he said.

Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque said earlier that the 44-year-old Chinese man who died on Saturday was the second case admitted to San Lazaro Hospital in Manila for pneumonia after experiencing fever, cough, and sore throat.

He was the companion of a 38-year-old woman who was the first confirmed case in the Philippines.

The man had developed severe pneumonia but then showed signs of improvement, Duque said. Then his condition deteriorated rapidly and he died..

Filipino helpers in Hong Kong were already up in arms over a Labour Department statement last Thursday that foreign domestic workers remain in their employers' homes on their days off.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor remarked: "I suppose that advice was given to protect our foreign domestic helpers by suggesting they stay at home. That was part of a strategy to reduce as much as possible social contacts."