By Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos/ Philippine News Agency
Partially-vaccinated employees tasked to do on-site work are not required to take regular reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests, Malacañang said on Friday.
The new testing protocol for on-site workers was contained in the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF-EID) Resolution 149 approved Thursday, said acting Presidential Spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles in a virtual press briefing.
“All partially vaccinated employees in the public and private sector tasked to do on-site work need not undergo regular RT-PCR testing at their own expense, as long as their second dose is not yet due,” Nograles, also acting as IATF-EID spokesperson, said.
According to IATF-EID Resolution 148-B issued on November 11, on-site workers are required to be fully vaccinated.
Under the previous resolution, on-site workers who remain to be unvaccinated should not be terminated but must take RT-PCR tests “regularly at their own expense.”
Citing the latest IATF-EID’s resolution, Nograles said the regular RT-PCR tests for purposes of on-site work should be done “at least once every two weeks”.
“Ang employer ang magsasabi kung gaano kadalas ang RT-PCR testing para sa mga empleyado na hindi pa fully vaccinated na nasa onsite. And this should be done at least once every two weeks,” he said.
On-site capacities for gov’t workers
Nograles said the IATF-EID, in its Resolution 149, also approved new on-site capacities for government workers.
He said the on-site capacities for government agencies and instrumentalities located in areas under Alert Levels 4, 3, and 2 are 40 percent, 60 percent, and 80 percent, respectively.
Nograles added that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) may proportionally increase public transport capacity to complement the increase of on-site capacities in government offices.
“Tinaasan din ng IATF ang public transport capacity para magkaroon ng sapat na masasakyan,” he said. (PNA) -rir
