DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The free Real-Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction Test (RT-PCR) for arriving passengers at Davao International Airport (DIA) has been temporarily suspended by the Davao City Government as it redirects its resources to address the rising number of local transmission after the holiday season.
This was revealed by Generose Tecson, head of the Davao City Tourism Operations, in an interview.
The city government has been footing the bill since July 2020 for passengers who arrived at the airport without a RT-PCR test, which costs the city P5,000 per swab test.
The free testing will resume once the Los Amigos COVID-19 Laboratory testing facility will start operations within the next few months, Tecson said.
For the meantime, Tecson urged people scheduled for flights to Davao City should take an RT-PCR test results within 24-72 hours or one to three days before their scheduled flight to the city and secure their Health Declaration Forms (HDFs).
Passengers who have their test results and HDFs will be prioritized to exit the airport.
Non-Davao City residents who have not obtained their RT-PCR results may still exit the airport that their local government units will fetch them with necessary documents.
In case a Davao City resident arrived at the airport without negative RT-PCR test results, the authorities will have to verify her HDFs and other documents before leaving and must comply with the quarantine protocol set by the local government.
Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio responded to this issue by reminding the public of Executive Order 63 that ensures people will travel to Davao City for essential business. The EO also ensures that non-Davao residents arriving at DIA need to be fetched by their local government units. (davaotoday.com)
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