Belmonte: Mayors want travelers to show negative COVID test results to enter NCR

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte. INQUIRER.net file photo / RYAN LEAGOGO

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila mayors, through the Metro Manila Council (MMC), have proposed to require travelers from areas with confirmed cases of the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant to undergo swab test and present a negative result before coming to the nation’s capital region.

This was revealed by Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte on Friday, a day after the health department confirmed the local transmission of the Delta variant in the country.

At present, Metro Manila is seeing a slight uptick of COVID-19 cases, which Belmonte said, “could be indicative of the Delta variant spreading,” but she noted that more cases of the variant are detected in areas outside of the National Capital Region (NCR).

“May proposal ang NCR mayors na baka maaaring ang mga manggagaling sa mga medyo matataas ang cases ng Delta variant, baka pwedeng bago pumasok sa NCR, sila naman ang may RT PCR test,” she said in an interview over ABS CBN’s TeleRadyo.

(The NCR mayors have a proposal to require RT PCR testing to travelers coming from areas with high occurrence of the Delta variant.)

“Katulad nung epicenter ang Metro Manila tayo naman ang kinakailangan magpresent (ng negative test result) kung pumunta tayo sa iba pang lalawigan, baka ganun din ang gagawin o pinopropose ng NCR through the MMC,” Belmonte added.

(Just like when Metro Manila was the epicenter and residents are required to present negative test results when they go to other areas, maybe we could do that also.)

READ: Local transmission of Delta variant in PH detected — DOH

But this proposal is yet to be discussed with the government’s COVID-19 policy-making body, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, she clarified.

At present, seven of the 22 local COVID-19 Delta variant cases were found in Metro Manila.

Of the seven, four are from Manila City, two from Pasig City, and one from Taguig City.

READ: DOH: 3 Delta variant cases detected in Pasig, Taguig

No Delta variant cases have so far been detected in Quezon City, Belmonte said.

Other COVID-19 Delta variant cases were found in Central Luzon and Northern Mindanao with six each, and Calabarzon and Western Visayas with two each. Currently, the Philippines has 47 cases of the Delta variant.

READ: DOH reports 12 more local Delta variant cases; total now 47

KGA