8 Philippine tourist spots ease travel curbs
The Philippines could scrap facilities-based quarantines for vaccinated travellers especially from North America from next week, as new cases have dropped to an eight-month low.
Meanwhile, more Philippine Local Government Units (LGUs) are expected to ease travel restrictions as the nationwide COVID vaccination drive gets ramped. More point-to-point travel for all ages is also expected to be allowed by the LGUs — empowered under Philippine law to make decisions on imposing/easing of travel curbs within their jurisdiction.
However, local decisions on easing of travel curbs depend on the level of vaccinations among seniors, pregnant women and persons with co-morbidities.
With 58.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered, 22.2% of the Philippines' population are now fully vaccinated. This ranks it 4th in the Asean, and 23rd out of 205 countries. The government aims to increase the average daily jab rate to 1.5 million doses.
On Tuesday (November 2), 2.4 million doses of Sputnik V vaccines landed in Manila, following the arrival on October 31 of 2 million Pfizer shots donated by the US under Covax, and 900,000 doses of AstraZeneca on October 28 donated by Japan.
Relaxed travel protocols
Following as the LGUs in leading Philippine tourist spots that have relaxed travel protocols:
1)Cebu
2) Iloilo
3) Butuan
4) Dipolog
5) Tacloban
6) Dumaguete
7) Cagayan de Oro, and
8) Palawan
The Department of Tourism has rolled out free swab tests for domestic tourists, a move that could boost travel. Meanwhile, flag-carrier Philippine Airlines has announced it will resume flights to Manila-Bohol flights from November 22, followed by AirAsia PH from December 1.
Boracay now open
The world-famous Boracay Island was reopened to tourists from General Community Quarantine (GCQ) areas from last month, following the approval of the Inter-Agency Task Force. Boracay-bound tourists are required to submit a negative RT-PCR test results taken within 72 hours prior to arrival and a hotel booking.
