THE Department of Transportation (DOTr) has asked the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to increase passenger capacity in public utility vehicles (PUVs) nationwide, and experiment on allowing 100 percent seating capacity in buses, jeepneys and trains in Metro Manila.
Steve Pastor, who is the agency’s assistant secretary for DOTr’s Road Transport and Infrastructure unit, said the agency has submitted its position paper to the IATF and is ready to defend its recommendation during its meeting on Thursday.
“The road sector has already submitted their formal position paper to increase the seating capacity from 50%, but if DOTr will decide, we want to have it 100% based on medical literature that is available. At the same time, we are ready to defend our position to IATF this Thursday… We need to propose this to (the) IATF because this is not only a matter of public transportation but also a matter of public health,” Pastor said.
Pastor said Metro Manila is the ideal place to pilot test the full resumption of public transport since it is now under Alert Level 3, which allows for more businesses to open and less strict mobility, and because of its high full vaccination rate of 81.4 percent.
“Metro Manila is the ideal place to test the proposal considering that 81.4% of its population is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19,” Pastor said, adding that “evidence also suggest that high vaccination rate prompts an increase in allowed PUV capacity.”
The transport executive also cited a DOTr “rapid analysis of available data” that involved a review of the 7-day average cases per 1 million population and public transport capacity that covered the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Australia, Vietnam, and Malaysia).
“It was found out that public transport capacity has no significant correlation with the number of COVID-19 cases,” Pastor said.
He likewise pointed to several relevant medical literatures which showed that “reliance on complete face mask use and partial hand sanitizer use were proven enough to contain three very modest COVID-19 waves (in Hanoi, Vietnam) while preserving normal bus services. Other studies have also revealed that passengers in the high-risk zones (seats in the same row with an infected passenger and within three rows) had moderate but not significantly higher risk, and that ‘rigid’ safe distancing rules are an oversimplification based on outdated science and experiences of past viruses.”
Besides, he added, “public utility jeepneys and buses operating in Metro Manila are well-ventilated.”
Pastor said the DOTr has been implementing a 50 percent capacity in public transport since the start of travel restrictions in the country last year, which has crippled the livelihood of public transport drivers and operators.
“The recommendation to increase passenger capacity in public transport is one of the measures being considered by the DOTr to help drivers and operators amid the pandemic and the continued increase of fuel prices,” he said.
He added: “Increasing passenger capacity will mean a higher revenue for the public transport sector. This will be a welcome development considering the increase in expenses brought by increasing fuel prices.”
Meanwhile in Baguio City, Mayor Benjamin Magalong announced that the country’s summer capital is reopening its doors to fully vaccinated individuals after nearly two months of suspending tourism due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Minor-companions of vaccinated tourists will also be allowed to travel to the city but would be required to present negative antigen or RT-PCR tests for those aged 12 to 17 years old.
Magalong said children aged 11 years old and below shall be tested with their parents’ or guardians’ consent.
Leasure travels, he said, are subject to strict compliance to minimum public health standards like the wearing of face mask and shield, social distancing and frequent hand sanitizing.
The city closed the local tourism industry last September 3 due to rising cases of COVID-19 infections.
Last Oct. 4, the Baguio Tourism Council asked the city government to re-open tourism to fully vaccinated tourists, noting the lockdown has wrought havoc on the economy, leading to the loss of jobs and livelihood.
“Hopefully our reopening will spur economic activity in our city which had almost been nil for the past two months because of the restrictions that we imposed to manage the cases,” Magalong said.
The city said tourists who want to travel to Baguio City must schedule their visit via the city’s visita.baguio.gov.ph at least a day before their trip and secure a QR-coded tourist pass.
“For adults, upload and bring your vaccination card/certificate, full vaccination will mean two weeks after 2nd/last dose. Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated adults are not allowed,” the city said in an advisory on its website.
“Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated minors aged 12 to 17 must present negative results of antigen or RT-PCR test conducted within 72 hours prior to arrival or during health screening at the City Triage. Minors aged 11 and below shall be tested at the option of their accompanying parents or adult guardian,” it added.
After passing the checkpoint, tourists must proceed to triages set up for health screening and verification of tourist passes and documents.
“Symptomatic visitors, regardless of vaccination status or test result, will be immediately tested and isolated, and referred to health officials for further action and advice prior to visitor’s return to point of origin,” it added.
Baguio City is currently under general community quarantine with heightened restrictions and has been seeing a drop in COVID-19 infections in recent days. The city has already recorded 28,930 infections with 810 active cases and 628 deaths.
As Baguio City reopened to outsiders, Lubang, Occidental Mindoro Mayor Michael Orayani yesterday said the town has been placed under a two-week lockdown, starting today, due to a rise in COVID-19 cases over the past several days.
Orayani said active cases in the island town of 20,000 people is now at 364, from just 40 last October 18. The increase, he said, was due to the conduct of mass testing that started last week.
Orayani said the local government requested the conduct of the mass testing from testing czar Vince Dizon due to fears that the Delta variant of COVID-19 has entered the town. — With Victor Reyes
