Police officers are told to be wary of persons who might take advantage of the eased rules on interzonal travel for fully vaccinated persons by presenting fake vaccination cards.
Philippine National Police chief, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, said the PNP will coordinate with the local government units on the latest directive issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases that fully vaccinated persons need not present swab test results if they want to travel within the country.
“If the result of the RT-PCR test is falsified, it is not far off that some person will also use fake vaccination documents. We must not allow this to happen,” Eleazar said in a statement yesterday.
The latest IATF resolution states that a person is considered fully vaccinated only if it has already been two weeks or more since the second vaccine dose was received, or two weeks since receiving a single shot.
For interzonal travel allowed under amended “pertinent resolutions” of the IATF and provisions of the Omnibus Guidelines on the community quarantine implementation, the presentation of vaccination card “shall be sufficient alternatives” for any testing requirement which the local government of destination may require.
The interzonal travel also applies to fully vaccinated senior citizens. Also, the traveler needs to undergo health and exposure screening upon arrival in the local government of destination.
Interzonal travel is the movement of people, goods and services across areas placed under different community quarantine classifications.
Eleazar reminded the public to still observe the minimum public health safety standards even when traveling.
“We should take extra caution so that we don’t contract Covid-19. Being fully vaccinated does not guarantee that we will never have Covid-19,” he said.
‘SHAME ON YOU’
Those involved in the illegal sale of Covid-19 vaccines should be ashamed of themselves, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said yesterday.
In a Palace press briefing, Roque renewed his warning against the illegal sale of Covid-19 jabs, reminding the public that these were not yet cleared for commercial use.
“Vaccines are not sold and we will not allow them to be stolen so that others could make a business out of it. This is for the pandemic,” he said.
He said it is inhumane to make a business out of the suffering of other people, especially now that there is a scarce global supply of vaccines.
“You should be ashamed of making profit out of the suffering of our people because of this pandemic,” he added.
ALL-OUT INVESTIGATION
Roque assured that the government will go “all-out” in investigating those behind the illegal sale of Covid-19 vaccines.
“We will investigate that and those vaccines have batch numbers so that they can be traced to where they were originally intended,” he said.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier condemned the illegal selling of Covid-19 vaccines, nothing that it not only hampers the rollout of the country’s vaccination program but puts the health and safety of the buyer in danger.
Late last month, three individuals were arrested for the alleged selling of 300 doses of vaccines developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech Ltd.
The three suspects were arrested in an operation, while another suspect is at large, the National Bureau of Investigation said.*PNA
