Spread of Delta variant prevented expert

The IATF earlier said that for these inbound travelers to be allowed to take the shorter quarantine, their vaccination cards must be verified prior to their departure from the Philippines. They must also get a certification from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) or the health officer of the local government which administered their last dose of COVID 19 vaccine.

The certification must be presented to the Bureau of Quarantine for reverification upon their return to the country.

The new rules would also do away with the need for them to take a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, unless they exhibit COVID 19 symptoms.

Meanwhile, the DOH on Friday said it would recommend that the swab test requirement be dropped for returning Filipinos who were already vaccinated abroad.

The DOH recorded 6,833 new COVID 19 infections on Friday, bringing the national case count to 1,346,276. At least 3,441 patients have recovered, raising the total number of survivors to 1,261,115.

But 110 more patients succumbed to the disease, pushing the death toll to 23,385. The DOH also reported that of the 43,635 people tested on Wednesday, 5,498 were found to have the virus, for a positivity rate of 12.6 percent. INQ