With the World Health Organization (WHO)’s declaration that Covid-19 is no longer a global public health emergency, National Unity Party (NUP) president LRay Villafuerte said over the weekend there is all the more reason for the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to ditch its tedious eTravel registration requirement for incoming international travelers, to entice more tourists and prospective investors to come to the Philippines.
Villafuerte reiterated his call on the IATF to get rid of this one remaining vestige of the stringent health protocols that most governments imposed three years ago to check the spread of the lethal coronavirus, following the WHO’s May 5 declaration that the Covid-19 pandemic “no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).”
“With WHO declaring that the period of Covid-19 as a PHEIC is already over and that the switch to the long-term management of the coronavirus must now be the priority, there is all the more reason for the IATF to get rid of the eTravel requirement imposed on inbound travelers, as a way to further entice tourists and prospective investors to come to the Philippines as our country transitions fully to the post-pandemic ‘new normal,’”
In a statement, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he agreed with the recommendation by the International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee that it is “time to transition to long-term management of the Covid-19 pandemic” amid the declining trend in coronavirus-related deaths, lower hospitalization rates and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and the high levels of population immunity to the virus.
“With WHO declaring that the period of Covid-19 as a PHEIC is already over and that the switch to the long-term management of the coronavirus must now be the priority, there is all the more reason for the IATF to get rid of the eTravel requirement imposed on inbound travelers, as a way to further entice tourists and prospective investors to come to the Philippines as our country transitions fully to the post-pandemic ‘new normal,’” Villafuerte said.
The Camarines Sur congressman said that “junking the tedious, time-consuming eTravel registration process would further convince the international investor community that the domestic economy has completely reopened for business and entice more international tourists to come see the Philippines.”
Despite the WHO’s declaration, though, Villafuerte called on Filipinos to remain on guard against Covid-19 and to continue adhering to the minimum public health standards such as physical distancing and mask-fearing, especially in high-risk areas for the elderly, immunocompromised individuals and those with comorbidities.
Villafuerte said the lifting of the eTravel requirement is not expected to bump up Covid-19 infections to alarming levels, given that the Department of Health (DOH) and private health experts believe that despite the current spike in this virus’ positivity rate, there is no reason to panic because of the low healthcare utilization rate (HCUR), which is the more critical criterion.
He pointed out that although OCTA Research projects the weekly positivity rate—which is the percentage of those found positive for Covid-19 from all those tested for the virus at a given week—possibly rising to as high as 25%, its research fellow Fredegusto David said the good news is that he and other experts do not expect HCUR to reach a critical level and will not go up to 40% or beyond.
The DOH, which defines HCUR as the combined use of ICUs, isolation beds, and mechanical ventilators, sees healthcare utilization remaining low partly because of the mass immunization drive.
DOH Officer-in-Charge (OIC) and Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire assured lawmakers at a recent House committee on appropriations hearing that the higher Covid-19 positivity rate is expected, and is not a cause for alarm, because of the shift in testing protocols, in which those being tested for the virus are those most likely to be infected.
Moreover, she said that over 90% of those found to be infected are “mild and asymptomatic cases,” and that just 8-9% of those with Covid-19 are “classified as sever and critical.”
The more important criterion, she added, is the HCUR, which remains at low risk “because of the wall of immunity due to vaccination.”
Villafuerte reiterated his call on the IATF to get rid of this one remaining vestige of the stringent health protocols that most governments imposed three years ago to check the spread of the lethal coronavirus, following the WHO’s May 5 declaration that the Covid-19 pandemic “no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).”
Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco expects domestic tourism to recover 100% this year, but she sees a full recovery of international tourism happening in 2024 yet, Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte, who saw the DOT declaring Camarines Sur as the country’s No. 1 tourist destination in 2010 on his watch as governor, said he supported the Department’s goal of boosting the industry by marketing the Philippines as a medical and wellness tourism destination, but added that one immediate way to attract more international visitors is to lift the eTravel requirement on inbound travelers.
Hence, he stressed, “the influx of more international visitors likely to be induced by the further relaxation of border travel requirements on incoming passengers will likely accelerate the full recovery of international tourism, boosting tourist spending receipts from this once booming sector that is crucial to our economy’s robust bounce back from the erstwhile global health and financial crises.”
The DOT was reported as saying that the Philippines generated P1.7 trillion-worth of visitor receipts from both international and domestic tourist spending in 2022.
Even as he welcomed the increase in tourist arrivals in this year’s first quarter following the Marcos administration’s apt relaxation in late 2022 of anti-Covid health protocols, Villafuerte said the DOT can entice even more visitors to come here by doing away with the tedious task of filling up the eTravel document that every inbound traveler, whether foreigner or Filipino, is required to present before boarding his or her flight bound for the Philippines.
“A lot more people can be enticed to go to the Philippines, whether for pleasure or business, if we were to get rid of the E-Travel document that is so tedious and time-consuming for inbound passengers to accomplish prior to their actual arrival here,” Villafuerte said.
As earlier ordered by the IATF, all incoming travelers are mandated to indicate in their respective eTravel papers that they had been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or, if not, to present the results of antigen tests taken within three days of their flights certifying that they are negative of the coronavirus.
Inbound passengers who cannot present either will be required to take RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) tests upon their arrival in a Philippine airport, and, if found Covid-positive, will be required to stay in a local quarantine facility for 7 to 10 days, depending on whether the infected travelers are fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated or un-vaccinated.
“Despite an uptick lately in cases of the new Covid-19 variant, health officials do not seem worried enough about a potentially alarming surge as to recommend the return of the masking mandate,” he said. “Hence, I believe a logical step further for Malacañang’s policy of increasingly relaxing anti-Covid health protocols and reopening our economy to global business and travel is the ditching of the eTravel document as a border entry prerequisite for international travelers.”
Vergeire said that despite the increase lately in Covid-19 infections and the presence of highly transmissible variants, the DOH and other IATF member-agencies had recommended to President Marcos not to reimpose restrictions like the mask mandate, and just limit masking to high-risk groups like senior citizens, immunocompromised people and those with comorbidities.
Stressed Villafuerte: “If countries like the US (United States) and Canada, which had similarly experienced Covid outbreak surges like the Philippines in the past, and which both have a far greater volume of inbound travelers than us, can lift their last remaining pandemic travel restrictions, why can’t we?”.
The US is poised to junk a requirement for international air travelers to show proof of their Covid immunization before they can enter any American state, beginning on May 11, when Washington is also lifting the country’s coronavirus public health emergency.
Canada removed its Covid-19 vaccine requirement for international air passengers in 2022 yet.
Villafuerte pointed out that the US Supreme Court earlier reversed a lower court ruling allowing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to require large businesses with 100 employees or more to require their workers to get anti-Covid shots or go through regular testing for the coronavirus and wear face masks at work.
As ordered by the IATF, eTravel had replaced the One Health Pass and e-Arrival Card as a travel requirement for incoming international passengers as part of the government’s health protocols to prevent the spread of Covid-19, ostensibly to make it easier for travelers to enter the Philippines.
“However, eTravel has not delivered smooth passage as promised, and incoming passengers now have to go through the same arduous task of filling up this supposedly better travel document as what had been experienced and griped about by air travelers with the ditched One Health Pass and e-Arrival Card ,” he said.
Under the eTravel setup, inbound travelers are to register on its official website https://etravel.gov.ph within 72 hours prior to their actual flights to the Philippines, and are mandated to present proof of their valid eTravel registration—either through printed copies or screenshots on their smartphones—prior to flight boarding at airports.
As per the IATF’s entry, quarantine and testing requirements, inbound travelers must have received the second dose of a two-dose series vaccine or a single-vaccine shot at least 14 days prior to their departure from their countries of origin.
For unvaccinated or partially vaccinated passengers, they must present negative results of Rapid Antigen Tests taken 24 hours before departure from their countries of origin in a continuous travel to the Philippines, excluding layovers.
Travelers who test positive in antigen tests taken upon their arrival in a Philippine airport shall go through whatever are the current DOH quarantine and isolation protocols.
The eTravel, which can be accessed for free via its official website, requires inbound travelers to answer questions based on IATF requirements, including age, traveler classification, and itinerary in the Philippines, for the information of health border authorities upon arrival at airports.
Incoming passengers who submit all required information and attachments in compliance with IATF protocols are issued green-colored QR codes, while those with missing requirements are issued red-colored QR codes.
Those with red-colored QR codes are interviewed upon their airport arrivals by Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) personnel to manually verify and assess if they need to first go through RT-PCR testing and facility-based quarantine—7 days for fully vaccinated passengers and 10 days for partially or un-vaccinated ones.
In keeping with the “Data Privacy Act” (Republic Act or RA 10173), all sensitive personal information are immediately deleted from the eTravel database after inbound passengers are completely processed, which means the eTravel QR codes are issued per transaction and passengers thus have to register for every travel to the Philippines.
