Negative antigen test now required for Boracay workers

By Jennifer P. Rendon

Akeanons working in Boracay are now required to present a negative antigen test for COVID-19 before they can enter the island.

Acting Mayor Frolibar Bautista of Malay, Aklan said he would issue an executive order anytime from now to formally implement the directive.

It might take effect today, July 30.

Antigen tests are immunoassays that detect the presence of a specific viral antigen, which implies current viral infection. Antigen tests are currently authorized to be performed on nasopharyngeal or nasal swab specimens placed directly into the assay’s extraction buffer or reagent.

It is commonly used in the diagnosis of respiratory pathogens, including influenza viruses and respiratory syncytial virus.

An antigen test costs between P1,500 to P2,500.

Meanwhile, for workers who will come outside of Aklan, they would be treated like regular tourists or visitors, thus they would need to present a negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test result.

The move is seen to affect Akeanon workers who go home regularly.

But Bautista defended the motive claiming that most of the new COVID-19 cases in Aklan were returning workers.

“We need to be sure because of the current rate of COVID-19 cases in other towns in Aklan,” he said.

For several days in the past weeks, Aklan province logged the most number of COVID-19 in Western Visayas.

Meanwhile, the Department of Tourism (DOT) reported on Monday that more tourism workers on Boracay Island will be inoculated following the arrival of 10,000 additional doses of Sinovac vaccines.

The DOT highlighted the need to vaccinate Boracay workers, as local tourist arrivals in the world-famous island picked up.

Undertaken by the DOT, the vaccination program is done in partnership with the National Task Force (NTF) on COVID-19 and the Malay local government.

The vaccination started Monday afternoon at the CityMall Boracay.

“Last July 7, I was with our Deputy Chief Implementer and testing czar, Secretary Vince Dizon, for the ceremonial vaccination of tourism workers in Boracay. Today, we are glad to report that the the 10,000 doses of Sinovac will benefit 6,500 tourism frontliners in the island,” Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said.

Of the 10,000 doses, around 3,000 doses will be administered as second doses for the initial 3,000 tourism workers, while the remaining 7,000 doses are allocated for the first and second doses of another 3,500 tourism workers.

Out of the additional 3,500 tourism workers in Boracay who will get their full vaccination through the DOT’s initiative, around 2,230 individuals are employed in accommodation establishments, 551 in restaurants, 397 in dive shops, spas, travel and tours, souvenir shops, jetty ports and other essential service providers, 142 in tourism-related cooperatives, 105 in transport sector, and 76 in government frontline service including tourist police, immigration staff and rehabilitation management group.

Puyat stressed that the DOT’s goal is to vaccinate all 11,620 tourism workers on the island, especially with the holiday season fast approaching.

As of Tuesday, Bautista said around 3,000 workers or a little over 25 percent of the Boracay tourism work force have been vaccinated.

When asked for the target schedule that all workers would be vaccinated, the mayor said it will depend on the availability of vaccine ghat would be sent to Malay.

“We will just wait. We cannot control the deliveries,” he said.

Bautista said he was assured, though, that all Boracay workers would get their jab in due time.

As to Boracay residents, he said they were able to inoculate 13 percent of the registered population.

Earlier, Puyat disclosed that the DOT will soon launch new tourism products for Boracay Island which are expected to attract more visitors. They include Boracay Biking Tour, Boracay Food Crawl, and the Boracay Wellness Workation Program.

Based on local government data, a total of 29,660 tourists arrived in Boracay through Caticlan from July 1 to 25, with 65.08 percent or 19,305 arrivals coming from the National Capital Region (NCR). This was followed by visitors from Region 4A (Calabarzon) with 6,374 tourists, and Region 3 (Central Luzon) with 2,213.