In many families in Hong Kong, both the husband and wife work full time jobs so rely on their domestic helpers to provide childcare. With schools closed in HK indefinitely, this creates a tremendous burden as parents need to scramble to organize alternative supervision for their children.
The Philippine government indicates it will review the travel ban in two weeks.
One AsiaXPAT staff member visited the Philippines over Chinese New Year and she was prevented from returning to work. Her workaround was to instead fly to Malaysia then onwards to Hong Kong.