(File photo)
MANILA – The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has modified the protocols for fully-vaccinated individuals who can avail of “green lanes”.
In a press statement, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said fully-vaccinated individuals who are qualified for green lanes must meet the four conditions set by the IATF-EID to enable them to observe a shorter quarantine period of seven days in an isolation facility.
The arriving passengers, Roque said, must make sure that their port of origin is a “green” country or jurisdiction and they stayed there exclusively in the last 14 days prior to their arrival in the Philippines.
The IATF-EID classified green countries or jurisdictions as “low risk” countries or jurisdictions, upon the recommendation of the Department of Health (DOH).
Roque said individuals qualified for green lanes must also be fully vaccinated, whether in the Philippines or abroad.
“Their vaccination status can be independently verified or confirmed by Philippine authorities as valid and authentic upon arrival in the country,” Roque, who also serves as IATF-EID spokesperson, said.
Fully-vaccinated individuals who will be given green lanes are required to take a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test on their fifth day in the country, Roque said.
Roque said the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) should ensure the strict symptom monitoring of individuals qualified for green lanes, while they are in the facility quarantine for seven days.
“Even if the RT-PCR test yields a negative result, the individual shall still complete the 7-day facility-based quarantine. If the RT-PCR test is, however, positive, prescribed isolation protocols must be followed,” he said.
Roque said a quarantine certificate from BOQ will be given to the fully vaccinated individuals, once they complete the seven-day quarantine.
“The individual is thereafter enjoined to do self-monitoring for the next seven days,” he said.
List of not qualified for green lanes
The IATF-EID, in its Resolution 128-A approved Thursday, also listed the individuals who are ineligible for green lanes.
Roque said individuals whose port of origin is not a green country or jurisdiction cannot avail of green lanes.
Those who stayed outside a green country or jurisdiction at any time in the last 14 days prior to their arrival in the Philippines are also not qualified for green lanes, Roque said.
Roque said individuals who are not fully vaccinated, or even if fully vaccinated but whose vaccination status cannot be verified as authentic upon their arrival in the country, cannot also be given green lanes.
“International arriving passengers to the Philippines, regardless of point of entry, shall not be qualified for the green lanes, and shall thus undergo a 10-day facility-based quarantine and a four-day home quarantine, including an RT-PCR test on the seventh day,” he said.
All passengers, whether Filipinos or foreigners, merely transiting through a non-green country or jurisdiction will likewise not be deemed as having come from that country or jurisdiction, if “they stayed in the airport the whole time and were not cleared for entry by immigration authorities,” Roque said.
The new rules will take effect on July 26, Roque said. (PNA)
