Fully-vaccinated individuals may visit Boracay without having to undergo testing for the new coronavirus disease 2019.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) yesterday said Boracay will soon waive RT-PCR testing for visitors who are fully-vaccinated as all tourism workers and eligible residents of Boracay will be fully vaccinated in one month, the first destination in the Philippines to achieve 100 percent inoculation.
The DOT said vaccination hit 91.09 percent of all tourism workers and 62.78 percent of the eligible population of the island as of yesterday.
DOT Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said Aklan Governor Florencio Miraflores has committed to accept visitors with proof of full vaccination — in lieu of a negative RT-PCR test result — once the island reaches a 100 percent vaccination rate among its residents.
The DOT noted a dramatic increase in tourist arrivals in the past two months compared to the same period last year.
A total of 11,668 active tourism workers and 15,350 or 62.78 percent of the island’s eligible population of 24,451 have been fully vaccinated, leaving some 9,000 residents left to be vaccinated. As of October 18, there were no new active cases on the island.
Since restrictions were eased with the lifting of Aklan’s modified expanded enhanced quarantine (MECQ) on Sept. 8, the Island recorded a total of 6,702 arrivals in September and 17,995 in the first three weeks of October. This represents an increase of 253 percent and 1,243.6 percent, respectively, from the same periods last year.
