Boracay plans to waive RT-PCR testing for fully-vaccinated tourists

All tourism employees and eligible Boracay residents are expected to be fully vaccinated in one month, allowing fully vaccinated individuals to visit the world-famous island without having to undergo COVID-19 testing as early as November. As of October 24, the vaccination had reached 91.09 per cent of all tourism workers and 62.78 per cent of the Island’s eligible population, according to the Department of Tourism (DOT). Boracay Island is projected to vaccinate its entire eligible population of 24,451 people by the end of October, making it the first Philippine destination to achieve 100 per cent vaccination. Earlier this year, the island became the first tourist destination to get COVID-19 inoculations.

Berna Romulo-Puyat, Tourism Secretary, expressed her optimism about the Island’s tourism revival, citing Governor Florencio Miraflores’ commitment to accept visitors with proof of full vaccination, in lieu of a negative RT-PCR test result, once the Island’s residents have reached a 100 per cent vaccination rate. This is a favourable development because the DOT has seen a significant increase in visitor arrivals in the last two months compared to the same period last year.

A total of 11,668 active tourism employees had obtained full doses of the COVID vaccine. Individuals employed in hotels, resorts, restaurants, spas and wellness centres, souvenir shops, shopping malls, security services and other essential service providers, tourism transportation, tourism-related cooperatives and associations, and government frontline service and private agencies are among them. A total of 15,350 people, or 62.78 percent of the Island’s 24,451 eligible people, have been fully vaccinated, leaving about 9,000 people to be vaccinated. There were no new active cases as of October 18.

“Our vaccination rollouts are crucial in protecting our tourism workers as they face visitors every day. With 100 per cent of tourism workers in Boracay inoculated, the DOT is confident that in the weeks to come, tourism arrivals on the Island will further increase and more tourism establishments will be able to reopen to restore jobs. More than the foregone revenue, the DOT is deeply concerned with the impact of the pandemic on the employment of the Island’s workers who either have been laid off or are now working on irregular work schedules. We believe that with the 100 per cent inoculation of the Island’s workers, the confidence of more Filipinos to travel will be restored, and that the island will be back on its feet sooner than anticipated,” said Puyat.

Since the modified expanded enhanced quarantine (MECQ) on Aklan was lifted on September 8, the Island has seen a total of 6,702 arrivals in September and 17,995 in the first three weeks of October. This is up 253 per cent and 1,243.6 per cent, respectively, from the same times the previous year. As of October 21, the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Negros Occidental, Capiz, Guimaras, and Iloilo, which make up Western Visayas (Region 6), had a 63.26 per cent immunisation rate among tourism workers.

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