By
Daisy CL Mandap
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| You can use your HK vaccination record to quarantine for 7 days in Phl |
If you’re returning to the Philippines from Hong Kong
and you’re fully vaccinated you can use the vaccination record issued to you
here so you can enjoy the shorter hotel quarantine period of seven days,
instead of the regular 10 days.
This was announced by the Philippine Consulate in an
advisory posted on its Facebook page late on Jul 29.
According to the advisory, “all inbound travelers to
the Philippines who have been fully vaccinated in Hong Kong may present either
of the following documents: vaccination card/record issued in Hong Kong or
international certificate of vaccination.”
As of now, Hong Kong still does not issue the international
certificate as the vaccination record it issues to each person is linked to a
centralized system and is easily verifiable and downloadable through electronic
means.
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| The Consulate says HK vaccination records can be presented on arrival in the PHL |
Since Hong Kong is included in the list of “green”
countries or territories, arrivals from here can enjoy the shortened quarantine
period of seven days in a designated isolation facility.
Previously, the Inter-Agency Task Force which sets out
the Philippines’ pandemic-related policies had instructed overseas Filipino
workers coming from green places to have their vaccination records verified at the
Philippine Overseas Labor Office to enjoy shorter quarantine.
No word was given then as to how non-OFWs could enjoy
the same benefit.
Reacting to the announcement, Consul General Raly
Tejada said that he would work on having the nearly fool-proof vaccination
records issued by Hong Kong to be recognized in the Philippines.
The IATF, through Resolution 123-C, approved on Jun
28, agreed to shorten the quarantine for arriving passengers from “green”
countries, so long as they have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine at
least 14 days earlier.
“Green” countries are those
classified by the Department of Health as “’low-risk countries or jurisdictions
based on disease incidence rate.”
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HK's high vaccination rate and low infection rate qualify it for the 'green' lane
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On
Jul 22, the IATF further modified the protocols for fully vaccinated
individuals who can avail of the shortened quarantine in an isolation facility under
Resolution 128-A.
They
must now meet four conditions:
1)
They must make sure their port of
origin is a “green” country or jurisdiction, and they stayed there exclusively
in the past 14 days before arriving in the Philippines.
2)
They must also be fully vaccinated,
whether in the Philippines or abroad, and their vaccination status can be
independently verified by Philippine authorities as valid and authentic upon
their arrival in the country.
3)
Fully vaccinated individuals using
the green lanes will have to take a reverse transcription-polymerase chain
reaction (RT-PCR) test on their fifth day in the country.
4)
Even if they test negative, they are
still required to complete the seven-day quarantine. If they test positive, prescribed
isolation protocols must be followed.
Inbound
travelers who come from a place not designated as “green” or who stayed outside
a green country of jurisdiction in the past 14 days cannot avail of the 7-day
quarantine.
The
same applies for those whose vaccination status cannot be verified as authentic
upon their arrival in the country.
The updated list issued by IATF designates the following
as green countries or jurisdictions: Albania, American
Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Azerbaijan, Benin, Bermuda, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cayman Islands, Chad, China, Comoros,
Cote d’ Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Dominica, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea,Falkland
Islands, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Kosovo, Laos, Mali,
Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Montserrat, New
Caledonia, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Northern Mariana
Islands, Palau, Poland, Romania, Saba (Special Municipality of the Kingdom of
Netherlands), Saint Barthelemy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Singapore, Sint
Eustatius, Slovakia,Taiwan, Togo.
Noticeably absent are the
United States, Canada, and all West European countries including the United Kingdom.
The Philippines has also
imposed a ban until Aug 15 on passengers coming from the following countries,
in a bid to contain the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus: India,
Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Malaysia
and Thailand.
