As Bohol prepares to reopen tourism in Panglao through its “travel bubble,” Tagbilaran City Mayor John Geesnell Yap II warns that locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and returning overseas workers posing as tourists will be barred from entering the city.
The city mayor clarified over dyRD Balita on Tuesday that the city is not a destination for tourists who are coming on the travel bubble.
Yap issued the policy in anticipation of the possibility that LSIs would want to return to Tagbilaran City to celebrate the coming Christmas holidays by pretending to be tourists to avail of a more relaxed quarantine protocol than the more stringent procedures under the “outbound locally stranded individual” (OLSI) program set by the COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).
The mayor advised that the prevailing health protocols and quarantine guidelines set by the Bohol-IATF should not be bypassed by returning LSIs.
The provincial government has set to initially reopen the resort-island of Panglao to tourists on November 15.
Tourists will no longer have to undergo the mandatory 5-day quarantine upon arrival in Panglao.
Instead, the tourists will be required to show that they have a negative result of a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that was taken at least 72-hours before their entry into the province.
The provincial government has given assurance to closely monitor tourists who will visit Panglao and have limited their movements to a number of accredited establishments that can operate under the travel bubble.
A travel bubble or travel corridor is a zone between territories that already demonstrates a capacity to control the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Capitol has encouraged tourists interested in coming to Panglao to register first at the provincial government’s website to get a quick response (QR) code.
The QR code will be used in booking airline or boat tickets including other transactions such as reservations at accredited hotels.
Mayor Yap called on the public the remain vigilant, in order to keep Tagbilaran City free of any new COVID-19 cases, and report returning LSIs who bypass mandated quarantine protocols. (KB, RT)