DAVAO-BOUND passengers can now present at check-in the negative results of the RT-PCR test taken 72 hours before their departure date.
This, after Mayor Sara Duterte said they will appeal to the national government to adjust the requirement of 48 hours to 72 hours to give travelers enough time to have themselves tested for the killer virus.
The local governmemnt sent a letter to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) amending the requirement from 24-48 hours to 24-72 hours negative RT-PCR result before the departure date.
Davao City had earlier required passengers to submit upon check-in at any airport of origin a negative RT-PCR result taken 48 hours before the departure date as one of the measures to control the transmission of the coronavirus infection.
The city government was prompted to require a negative RT-PCR after the data from the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit showed that the highest confirmed COVID-19 cases in Davao City were travelers from Manila.
Checkpoints reinforced
Meanwhile, health screening at the entry and exit checkpoints has been strengthened for land travelers entering and exiting Davao City.
The mayor on Monday said that the people arriving from other Mindanao airports that do not require a negative RT-PCR and traveling by land will be screened at the checkpoints.
“Gipakusgan napud nato atong mga land checkpoints sa entry and exits diri sa Davao City, because we expect na dunay musakay sa ubang airport tapos mag by-land sila padulong diri sa atoa (We have also strengthened screening at our entry and exit checkpoints in Davao City because we expect that there are passengers who landed from other airports and will enter the city by land),” she said.
The Task Force (TF) Davao has created a screening process to check the travel history of passengers entering the city. The Army unit will also coordinate with the City Health Office (CHO) if ever they find Davao residents who arrived from other airports.
“For the past two weeks naa tay gina-construct nga mga facilities para mas ma-paspas nato ang health screening nato dinha sa mga checkpoints nato (For the past two weeks, we constructed facilities to speed-up the health screening at the checkpoints),” she added.
The thermal scanner was already installed at the Lasang checkpoint on July 19 while the installation in the Sirawan checkpoint will be done on July 21 and on July 25 at the Lacson checkpoint.
Mayor Sara also said the city may conduct a voluntary and random RT-PCR testing for land travellers if the number of cases with a history of land travel will increase.
This was previously done for air passengers due to the surge of positive cases since the resumption of commercial flights in Davao International Airport.
“We’ll see with the numbers because makita man nato kung unsay history or unsay exposure sa usa ka-confirmed Covid-19 case (We’ll see with the numbers because we can identify that with the history and exposure of a confirmed Covid-19 case),” she said.
Air travelers entering Davao City are required to present before boarding the negative result of RT PCR test conducted within 72 hours before the trip.
Davao City had earlier required Davao-bound passengers to submit upon check-in at any airport of origin a negative RT-PCR result taken 48 hours before the departure date as one of the measures to control the transmission of the coronavirus infection.
The requirement was adjusted to 72 hours.
The city government was prompted to require a negative RT-PCR after the data from the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit showed that the highest confirmed Covid-19 cases in Davao City were travellers from Manila.
