BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Traveling to Negros Occidental may be easier soon.
The provincial government is ready to accept fully vaccinated travelers without having them undergo reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test prior to entry.
But the province must secure a go-ahead signal from the national Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) first, according to Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, provincial administrator.
More proposals are now being forwarded to the national government, particularly on the easing of domestic travel, to help the economy recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Diaz said the province itself already registered a substantial number of vaccinees. Vaccine identification cards have already been sent out.
Diaz said they were previously concerned that vaccination cards could be faked, although the issue seemed to have been resolved thanks to the quick response (QR) codes in the vaccine cards.
The QR codes can be scanned in the airports; the person’s vaccine information will be revealed.
On Tuesday, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said local chief executives are now open to allowing airlines to fly vaccinated passengers without the RT-PCR test, while the unvaccinated will still be required to undergo swabbing prior to travel.
According to the Department of Health, a person could only be considered “fully vaccinated” two weeks after getting the second shot of the two-dose Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after getting the single-dose Johnson & Johnson jab./PN
