MANILA: The Philippine govt has tightened restrictions in the community and at the borders, as the country confirmed the start of a new wave of Covid-19 infections - this time fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant. The country will ban inbound travelers from Malaysia and Thailand from July 25 to 31 to prevent the spread of the highly infectious Covid-19 Delta variant, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on Friday.

Roque said in a statement that travellers coming directly from the two Southeast Asian countries or with a history of travel to any of them within the last 14 days will be barred from entering. "This action is undertaken to prevent the further spread and community transmission of COVID-19 variants in the Philippines,"  Malaysia and Thailand are experiencing a surge believed to be driven by the Delta variant.

Roque said that returning overseas Filipino workers under the government repatriation program are exempted from the ban but will be isolated for 14 days upon arrival. The inclusion of Malaysia and Thailand brings to 10 the list of countries banned by the Philippines. Travellers from Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Oman and the United Arab Emirates are not allowed to enter the country until July 31. The Philippines has reported a total of 1,530,266 confirmed Covid-19 cases as of Friday, with 26,891 deaths.

Terror: Taliban kidnaps 380 Afghan civilians, killing more than 100

Pakistan Foreign Minister Qureshi to visit China today, issues possible to be discussed

Israel re-imposes several coronavirus-related restrictions