THE Bureau of Immigration on Wednesday announced that it has completed rapid testing for coronavirus infection among all agency personnel in its main office in Manila.
BI spokesman Melvin Mabulac told public briefing Laging Handa that Commissioner Jaime Morente ordered a 100 percent testing after nine immigration personnel earlier turned false positive results for the virus that causes COVID-19.
Mabulac said all nine BI officers were found negative after the confirmatory tests using the more reliable reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
“We conducted the rapid testing followed by the swabbing because we knew that the results might be doubtful. Thankfully, all of them showed negative in the RT-PCR test,” he said.
The immigration official added that all BI personnel deployed in airports around the country have likewise been told to undergo mandatory testing.
“We need to know if any of our people is infected so we can act fast and intervene if necessary,” he explained.
In addition, the BI offices have also undergone several batches of disinfection to heighten the protection of employees and the transacting public.
In this regard, Mabulac called on Filipinos and foreign visitors to first secure an appointment date with immigration officers online to lessen physical interactions and facilitate processing.
“The Commissioner issued a memorandum requiring that appointments must first be confirmed online so we can easily manage the crowd and comply with protocols on safe distancing. We discourage walk-in transactions,” he said.
The Immigration official said the BI resumed full operations last June 1 even if the agency continued running uninterrupted while big parts of the country was under a lockdown.