LGUs urged to issue legitimate vax cards

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is ugring local government units (LGUs) to issue legitimate vaccination cards now that fully vaccinated individuals have been exempted from COVID-19 tests when traveling within the country.

LGUs have been issuing different proofs of vaccination and many were reported to issue cards using photocopied forms and without control numbers.

“We hope and we have given advice that LGUs… should be able to issue a card that is more legitimate, that our people can use when they do interzonal travel,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a media briefing on Monday.

“This protocol for interzonal travel (across areas of different quarantine restrictions) for fully vaccinated individuals with vaccination cards has to be uniformly implemented. That is part of the incentives we give to those who are fully vaccinated. All LGUs should be able to implement this,” Vergeire added.

This would also help ease the fears of LGUs that travelers could bring the virus to their jurisdictions.

At least five local governments in Luzon said they were not keen on allowing the entry of fully vaccinated leisure travelers without first going through a swab test.

Some said they might forgo the requirement for a test for fully inoculated visitors but would insist on some requirements, such as imposing a quarantine period or, at a minimum, for these travelers to register at their medical triage.

La Union was not inclined to immediately accept vaccinated leisure travelers, officials said on Monday.

Adamor Dagang, La Union tourism officer, said most of the tourism workers in the province who belonged to the A4 vaccination priority category had yet to get the anti-COVID shots.

Not for leisure

“Fully vaccinated persons are allowed to go to La Union, but not those who will come for leisure or tours,” Dagang said in a telephone interview.

In Pangasinan, officials said they would comply with the ruling of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) allowing fully vaccinated people to tour.

However, vaccinated tourists would still be required to register with the online travel assistance platform called “Safe, Swift and Smart Passage (SPASS)” and “Tara Na,” said Malu Amor Elduayan, the provincial tourism officer.

Officials in Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte said they were still studying if they would start accepting vaccinated travelers even without undergoing COVID tests.

In Baguio City, Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Monday said vaccinated travelers would only need to show proof that they received their jabs and undergo medical triage as a precaution.

Inoculated tourists would also be required to register with Baguio’s Visitors Information and Travel Assistance platform.

In Zambales, officials said they would still enforce existing travel protocols, including requiring negative RT-PCR test results or saliva tests pending an official transmittal of the latest IATF rules.

New cases

On Monday, the DOH reported 5,392 more confirmed COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 1,441,746.

Another 6,477 people have recovered from the disease, raising total recoveries to 1,364,960.

The DOH also reported 43 more deaths, the third straight day of less than 100 deaths, bringing the total death toll to 25,192.

Out of 47,614 individuals tested last Saturday, 11.3 percent were confirmed to have been infected by the virus.

Ten laboratories, however, did not submit their results to the DOH.

The DOH also said that those who missed the schedule for their second COVID shot could still take it three to six months after their first dose, the acceptable interval for getting the two jabs.

As of July 4 or Week 18 since the official vaccination rollout, official data said 8,839,124 individuals had received at least one dose, including 2,868,905 who had completed their two jabs.

—WITH REPORTS FROM INQUIRER BUREAUS