Philippines extends ban on flights from U.K. to avoid new COVID-19 variant

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday extended a ban on flights from the United Kingdom by another two weeks to mid-January in a bid to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus variant.

He also ordered a 14-day quarantine for passengers that came from or transited in the United Kingdom, and from countries where the more infectious COVID-19 variant was detected, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Japan.