DUMAGUETE CITY – Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo has signed an executive order easing travel restrictions and other health and documentary requirements for those coming to the province even as it remains under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
Executive Order No. 5, Series of 2021, released on Thursday, states that it is adopting the National Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (NIATF-EID) Resolution No. 101 that calls for uniformed travel protocols, but with additional provisions from the provincial level.
Covid-19 testing is not mandatory for a traveler unless it is required by the destination local government unit (LGU), and the test shall only be limited to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the EO states.
The EO has also lifted quarantine for travelers unless they exhibit symptoms upon arrival at the LGU of their destination.
A travel authority and health certificate are no longer required as well.
Other stipulations found in Resolution No. 101 are also adopted such as adhering to the minimum basic health protocols of masking, hand sanitization, safe physical distancing, the use of information and communication technology such as the Safe, Swift, and Smart Passage (S-PaSS) Travel Management System and StaySafe.ph System, among others.
For those who cannot obtain an RT-PCR test before departure for Negros Oriental, they can be swabbed here, however, they will be placed at a holding place while awaiting the test result before they can be released.
Meanwhile, Assistant Provincial Health Officer Dr. Liland Estacion, health committee chair of the province’s IATF, reiterated that returning overseas Filipinos (ROF) and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are still required to undergo the 14-day mandatory quarantine.
She said this is because of the emergence of Covid-19 variants in other countries.
Estacion said that if a ROF or OFW is subjected to a certain number of days of quarantine at the point of entry to the Philippines, the remaining days shall be completed upon arrival in the province, but she did not say whether home quarantine would be allowed for that traveler. (PNA)
