In late June of this year, the Office of the Vice President and the city government of Manila partnered with the private sector to inoculate tricycle and pedicab drivers and delivery riders in a drive-thru vaccination initiative. The two-day program dubbed Vaccine Express (VE) was in line with the ongoing vaccine drive for essential workers under the A4 priority group. Vice President Leni Robredo and Manila Mayor Isko Moreno graced the launching of the drive-thru vaccination site at the Cultural Center of the Philippines aimed at inoculating 5,000 drivers and riders with over 900 drivers getting their shots within 4 hours of VE’s opening. The Vaccine Express program was organized with the help of CCP, UBE Express, Smart Communications, Seaoil Philippines and Shell Philippines which provided gas cards worth ₱500 to drivers who got inoculated. There were also volunteer doctors and nurses as well as members of the Philippine Army and Philippine Coast Guard who also assisted the vaccinees.
Previous to this I have cited a pilot Quezon City government set up of a drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination site for transport workers aimed at vaccinating over 200 tricycle drivers and food delivery riders in commemoration of Labor Day or May 1, 2021. These economic frontliners received their first dose of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine during the symbolic vaccination event are overseas Filipino workers, tricycle drivers and food delivery riders. According to our good Mayor Joy Belmonte, the aim of this initiative is to highlight the city’s objective, “is to expedite vaccination to these essential transport workers because they ferry people every day. To make it faster, they can just pass through and get vaccinated. They do not need to wait one and a half hours.”
I see this encouraging support for our transport workers coming from enlightened local executives as a good sign that there are many among us who care for our essential front-liners who make it possible for us to go places to work, to come together, to do our essential errands in these pandemic times. One cannot overemphasize the critical role that transport workers play in our country’s economic recovery from this pandemic, especially now that the Philippines has been experiencing more than a year of economic downturn that has cast our financial markets and businesses into a grinding deflation. All of us have a role to play in turning the country around but none more as critical as transport workers who literally make it possible for people and society to function, to move, and to work. So, all those like Mayor Isko Moreno, Mayor Joy Belmonte, Vice President Leni Robredo and the other public officials as well as private corporations and groups who went to bat for our transport brothers and sisters; here’s a shout out for a good deed done; and may your tribe increase.
On another front — for those who are itching to travel or have friends and relations coming from abroad, here are some tips from the One-Stop Shop (OSS) under the Department of Transportation (DOTr) which could clarify some questions that you may have concerning air transport especially now that we face the threat of the Delta variant of COVID19 and our airports are the focus of attention:
- To avoid people from bunching in, passengers coming from abroad may have to stay longer in their planes as airport regulations require social distancing for arrivals so you just have to wait your turn to join the queue in immigration and baggage areas. This is being done due to limited space and the unique NAIA configuration where many arrival gates are far from each other.
b) For those arriving at NAIAA Terminals 1 and 3, their temperatures are checked in the Bureau of Quarantine scanning areas. Those that have vaccination certificates are still subject to a 14-day quarantine as the country does not have an internationally recognized vaccination certificate. Until there is an internationally accepted vaccination certification, authorities can only recognize vaccinations done in the Philippines, the OSS said.
c) Passengers have to pay in advance to private laboratories (Detoxicare for Terminal 2 arrivals) in order to ensure the arrangement of testing schedule and data recording in preparation for their swabbing in the hotel on the seventh day. This is also to save time during the actual swabbing day as all paper works and billings had been done in the airport during arrival. Detoxicare is a Department of Health-registered laboratory. It is just one of the authorized molecular laboratories in the airport. Philippine Airlines also partnered with Detoxicare to conduct the Covid-19 tests of passengers at Terminal 2.
d) The NAIA One-Stop-Shop procedure for transportation arrangements is for hotel shuttles to pick them up at the airport. The arrangement of transportation for returning Filipinos aims to ensure that passengers will surely proceed to their designated quarantine facility. Those who will undergo quarantine are likewise allowed to make arrangements for a hotel to pick them up. It is only those who have no prior arrangements for hotel pickup that are advised to take the designated transportations arrangements,” the OSS clarified.
Thus, going through this rigmarole could be quite daunting coming in to our country; you could just imagine the same going through the hoops if you are to journey out abroad — it would not be easy as it used to before the pandemic. So be aware and be informed, and above all, be patient and always keep your cool as you venture out into the wider world still in the grips of the COVID19 pandemic.
