That’s according to Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat, who said she was proposing the reopening of the country’s borders to vaccinated international travelers once more. “Yes, we’re ready to open [to foreign tourists] because we know Omicron is very mild, especially if you’re vaccinated and boostered,” she said in a radio interview on Wednesday.
The DOT chief expressed hope that her proposal for reopening to international travelers would be approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases for implementation by February. The proposal covers vaccinated tourists from visa-free Green List countries like Japan and Indonesia, and thus no longer have to undergo quarantine upon arrival.
As this developed, the Bureau of Quarantine assured the public that there are now enough government isolation facilities for Covid-positive returning overseas Filipinos , like“There are available [isolation] facilities now. Everyday BoQ transfers more than 150 Covid-positives from quarantine hotels to isolation facilities,” said the agency’s Deputy Director Dr. Roberto M. Salvador in a Viber message to the BusinessMirror.
In December, BoQ had difficulty pulling out Covid-positive ROFs from quarantine hotels as isolation facilities were overrun with locally-infected residents along with Covid-positive overseas Filipino workers. This led to the IATF approving DOT’s recommendation to allow quarantining ROFs to continue their isolation in quarantine hotels. Many, however, complained of having to pay for extra room nights for their isolation.
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