TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, July 6 (PIA) -- Fully vaccinated individuals, including senior citizens covered by the travel restrictions, can now travel all over Bohol unimpeded as long as they can show proof that they completed their COVID-19 vaccination. 

The proof, as contained in the vaccination card, also allows these individuals to avail of shortened quarantine should they be identified as close contacts of a probable or confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) positive patient. 

Fully vaccinated individuals, however, as defined by the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, are those who have equal or more than two weeks after having received the second dose of the two-dose vaccines, or the same length of time after getting the first dose of a vaccine that only needs a single shot.

According to the IATF in its Resolution No. 124-B, these fully vaccinated individuals can now can travel unhampered in areas under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) and Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ).

However, other than being able to present their domestic COVID vaccination card, they also have to observe the minimum public health standards and protocols, according to the IATF.

The vaccination card, according to IATF, is issued by the legitimate vaccinating establishment as soon as the individual completes his vaccination against the highly viral disease.

In its Resolution No. 124-B, series of 2021, the IATF also said that aside from the vaccination card, a certificate of quarantine completion showing the holder’s vaccination status as may be issued by the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) would also suffice. 

It may be recalled that the IATF, in its Resolution No. 123-C series of 2021, has said that BOQ is authorized to issue Certificates of Quarantine Completion indicating the vaccination status of the fully vaccinated arriving travelers, whether they were vaccinated in the Philippines or abroad.  

The vaccination card, which attests to an individual’s full vaccination, also cuts the 14-day mandatory quarantine to half, shortening the quarantine to 7 days when one is identified as a close contact or probable COVID-19 case, as long as he or she remains asymptomatic during the quarantine period, beginning from the first day immediately after the last exposure.

With the card, in the event that a fully vaccinated individual needed to be tested through Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, this would be done not earlier than the fifth day after the last exposure to the virus.

For close contacts of probable or confirmed COVID-19 cases who have been traced beyond the seventh day from the last exposure and still remained asymptomatic, these fully vaccinated individuals no longer need to be tested and be placed under quarantine as required.

With the same vaccination card showing two weeks has lapsed after the second dose, travel outside Bohol for holders of legitimate vaccination documents could already by a sufficient alternative to any testing requirement before travel or upon arrival of a local government unit, subject to health and exposure screening in the local government of destination, said the IATF. (RAHC/PIA7 Bohol)