BACOLOD City – The city government would implement a “swab and go” scheme for returning Bacolodnons once inbound travel resumes on April 20.
A lot of them were affected by the extension on travel moratorium, according to Councilor Israel Salanga, chairperson of the city’s Action Team on Returning OFWs (ATRO).
“Because of the moratorium, they were not able to come home and one of their problems is taking swab test again in compliance with the travel requirement… This would be another expense on their part,” Salanga stressed.
With the “swab and go” scheme, the official said, affected returning residents can still travel here even with their “expired” swab test results.
To note, returning overseas Filipinos and locally stranded individuals must secure negative results of their reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests first, undertaken 72 hours prior to traveling.
“They can return home provided the city will fetch them at the Bacolod-Silay Airport. They will be taken to the Bacolod Respiratory Outpatient (BRO) Center at the Bacolod Arts and Youth Sports Center for RT-PCR test… Testing is free,” Salanga explained.
Returning residents will be sent home after swabbing. They must then observe a strict 14-day home quarantine while waiting for their swab test results.
On April 10, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and National Task Force Against COVID-19 granted the request of Western Visayas to extend the ban on the entry of travelers from the National Capital Region, provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal, and the cities of Cebu and Davao to the region for one week.
The moratorium is set to end today./PN