FRONTLINE workers of hotels used as temporary isolation or quarantine accommodations for Covid-19 positive but asymptomatic individuals and arriving international passengers, respectively, can now get vaccinated immediately, after they were included on the A1 Priority List of the government.
This decision was contained in a letter to Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat dated May 15, 2021, from National Task Force against Covid-19 Chief Implementer (Ret.) Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., who said: “We are very pleased to inform you that the request for inclusion of frontline employees in accommodation establishments used as isolation or quarantine hotels in the Priority Population Group A1, has been favorably acted upon, as can be gleaned from the National Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Program Prioritization Framework, Workers in Frontline Health Services: ‘Isolation and quarantine facilities such as temporary treatment and monitoring facilities and converted facilities [e.g. hotels, schools, etc.] that cater to Covid-19 suspect, probable, and confirmed cases, close contacts, travelers in quarantine;’ under A1.3.” (Emphasis Galvez’s)
In a news statement, Romulo Puyat hailed the decision, saying, “We express our deepest gratitude to Secretary Galvez and the NTF. Most of our tourism workers were reporting for work even at the onset of the pandemic while most of the cities and municipalities were still under an enhanced community quarantine. It is high time that we protect our tourism frontliners knowing that they are risking their lives each time they show up in the designated quarantine and isolation hotels. This move shows the government’s commitment to protect them. Not only will this decision help ensure the survival of the tourism industry; this will also hasten the country’s economic recovery.”
The Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases last April 14 also approved the inclusion of other tourism frontliners, like workers from the transport sector and the food, restaurant and accommodation enterprises in the A4 Priority Group for vaccination.
A total of 2,507 employees of quarantine hotels nationwide have been successfully inoculated against the Covid-19, according to the Department of Tourism (DOT).
100% capacity for staycation hotels
Meanwhile, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said staycation hotels are now allowed to accept guests without administering Covid-19 tests, “as long as they are between the ages of 18 and 65 years old.”
In a press briefing on Friday, he added, DOT-accredited hotels in general community quarantine (GCQ) areas are now allowed to “accommodate guests until 30 percent of their venue capacity subject to DOT guidelines and other conditions, like they have to belong to one household only.”
Romulo Puyat explained, “In Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, etc. they have DOT-accredited hotels that were open only for leisure guests under modified GCQ. But since GCQ, they aren’t supposed to accept leisure guests. The IATF now decided they can accept, but up to 30-percent capacity only.” This rule doesn’t apply to hotels in the National Capital Region because “there are only quarantine hotels and staycation hotels.”
She added, staycation hotels in GCQ areas “can now accept up to 100 percent” of their capacity.
As this developed, President Duterte on Thursday ordered the diversion of inbound flights arriving at the Mactan Cebu International Airport to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, from May 29 to June 5, 2021.
‘Cebu is not defying IATF rules’
In a memorandum from Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea to the heads of all government agencies, government-owned and -controlled corporations, and local government units also ordered the “nationwide enforcement of testing and quarantine protocols for inbound travels.”
The IATF, in its Resolution 116-A, has implemented a 14-day quarantine for inbound passengers, 10 days at a hotel and four days at home. However, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia recently ordered a three-day hotel quarantine for returning overseas Filipinos and overseas contract workers, who are non-Cebu residents, as they wait for the result of their RT-PCR tests upon arrival. (See, “Returning Pinoys land in Cebu to avoid Manila’s strict protocols,” in the BusinessMirror, May 23, 2021.)
But Roque in his news briefing said, “There was likely no defiance. What happened in Cebu was, they ran out of hotels and the DOT only approved now that you could mix guests in these hotels.”
He added, “So while we are fixing the arrival protocols and before [Medialdea’s] memorandum, the Cebu International Airport closed for two days because they ran out of hotels for the arriving OFWs and overseas Filipinos. So while they are fixing that, the flights will be rerouted. It is temporary and we hope that the system will be fixed so there will be adequate rooms in Cebu.”
The cap on arriving international passengers at the MCIA is only 300, compared to 2,000 at the Naia. The Civil Aeronautics Board failed to comment on BusinessMirror’s inquiries if the cap at the Naia had been increased because of the flight diversions from Cebu.
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