By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – Bacolod Emergency Operations Center executive director and City Administrator Em Ang said the City Health Office will no longer issue medical certificate for travel purposes.
“Because of the new guidelines under IATF Resolution 101 eliminating the COVID Shield, the City Health Office (CHO) will no longer issue medical certificates for travel purposes,” Ang said Tuesday.
She said this is to comply with and fully implement the provisions of the National Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (NIATF-EID) Resolution 101, series of 2021.
The resolution issued on February 26 approved the uniform travel protocols for land, air, and sea of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
It provides that the travel authority issued by the Joint Task Force COVID Shield and health certificates shall no longer be required.
In its recently issued memorandum, the Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center said that the non-issuance of medical certificates for travel will allow CHO personnel to tend to direct medical care visits and focus on the city’s COVID-19 vaccination program.
“The Safe, Swift and Smart Passage (S-PaSS) Travel Management System of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) shall be institutionalized as the one-stop-shop application/communication for travelers. The StaySafe.ph shall be utilized as the primary contact tracing system,” part of the resolution also read.
OIC-City Health Officer Dr. Edwin Miraflor Jr. said that the online transactions for securing medical certificates shall continue only until April 15.
Earlier, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia and other chief executives in the region appealed to the NIATF to suspend travel from National Capital Region provinces where COVID -19 cases has been surging to Western Visayas.
Both Leonardia and Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson cited the NIATF resolution easing of travel protocol and not requiring arriving residents to undergo swab test as the cause of the surge of COVID-19 cases in the city and the province.
