Most of the infected personnel of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) have gone back to work and are ready for the influx of tourists once the quarantine requirement is waived starting February 10 for the fully vaccinated.
Returning overseas Filipinos (ROF) are also exempted from quarantine starting Tuesday as long as they have the complete vaccine doses against Covid-19 and a negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test result taken within 48 hours before departure from the country of origin.
As of Monday, 401 BI workers, majority of whom are assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, have recovered from Covid-19.
Only 23 immigration officers assigned at airports are still under isolation.
“We are ready and we have the available manpower to address this projected increase in passenger volume in our airports,” BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said in a statement on Tuesday.
Under the latest resolution issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, fully vaccinated tourists from visa-free countries will no longer have to quarantine starting February 10.
Like ROF, they must have a proof of vaccination and a negative RT-PCR test result.
The countries with visa-free arrangement are listed at dfa.gov.ph/list-of-countries-for-21-day-visa.
Carlos Capulong, BI port operations chief, said in another statement that a reserve team of immigration officers will be tapped to augment and assist their front-liners at the airport if the need arises. (PNA)
