Philippines suspends decision to allow vaccinated tourists entry

Empty beach on the holiday island Boracay in the Philippine. The move to temporarily suspend fully vaccinated tourists is a major blow to tourism operators. - Reuters

MANILA (AFP): The Philippines has temporarily suspended a decision to allow fully vaccinated tourists entry in a bid to prevent a new, heavily mutated coronavirus variant taking off in the country where most of the population remains unvaccinated.

It comes as the South-east Asian nation on Monday launched a three-day vaccination drive targeting nine million people as young as 12 in an effort to accelerate the roll-out of jabs.