BACOLOD City – The city government plans to scrap as requirement for fully vaccinated inbound travelers from Western Visayas and Negros Oriental the negative results of their reverse transcription – polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
Doctor Chris Sorongon, deputy for medical and data analysis of the Emergency Operations Center( EOC), said the City Legal Office(CLO) is drafting an amendment to the travel guidelines of Mayor Evelio Leonardia’s Executive Order(EO) No. 2.
EO No. 2 requires inbound travelers coming in through ports to submit negative results of their RT-PCR tests whether they are fully vaccinated against coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) or not.
The EO took effect on Jan. 14.
A person is considered fully vaccinated against COVID-19 two weeks after receiving their second dose in a 2-dose vaccination series, such as with the Pfizer or Moderna brand of vaccines, or two (2) weeks after a single-dose vaccine such as with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine.
The plan to lift the RT-PCR test requirement is in response to requests such as from the business sector.
Fastcrafts serving the Iloilo – Bacolod route and vice versa suspended their operation due to low passenger volume, which in turn is being blamed on the RT-PCR test requirement.
Sorongon, however, clarified that should the amendment be approved, the city government will still require unvaccinated travelers to undergo RT-PCR test with negative result./PN
