Malacañan Palace (INQUIRER/Edwin Bacasmas)
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang visitors will now be required to submit a health declaration form as a precaution against the novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV.
LOOK: Malacañang now requires visitors entering Palace for events to declare if they traveled to foreign countries or were sick in the past 30 days. | @JMAurelioINQ pic.twitter.com/s9FaVQTV04
— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) February 6, 2020
All visitors, including guests, media, security detail, and government employees and officials, will be asked to accomplish the declaration form before entering the presidential palace, Presidential Security Group Commander Brig. Gen. Jose Niembra told reporters Thursday.
Among the details visitors have to declare in the form include travel history from the last two weeks, current health conditions, and whether they have contact with any farm or wild animals in the last two weeks.
Niembra said the new health protocol will stay unless lifted by the Office of the President-Events Management Cluster and Department of Health (DOH).
Last week, the PSG asked all its personnel deployed within the Malacañang Complex to wear face masks. It also recommended the temporary suspension of tours in the Malacañang Museum, which is situated in the Malacañan Palace.
The death toll from the novel coronavirus has reached over 560 people and infected over 28,000 in China alone.
In the Philippines, health officials are currently monitoring over a hundred patients for possibly carrying the new coronavirus strain. DOH confirmed a third case of an infected person on Wednesday, while one fatality was reported on February 2 – the first in the Philippines and outside China.