Businesses told to require customers to present vaccination documents

The City Council, during last Monday’s regular session, urged all business establishments operating in the city to have their customers present their vaccination cards, certificates or QR codes as evidence of their vaccination before allowing them entrance or access to their premises to help in mitigating the rapid escalation of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and its variants, especially the more infectious and more transmissible Omicron variant which is now dominant in most parts of the world.

In a resolution, local legislators stated that in order to mitigate the projected negative effects that unvaccinated persons pose to the general public, it is imperative that the local government do its part to protect the residents from unvaccinated persons and therefore, it is necessary to call on establishments to increase their restrictions over the said individuals.

Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte lamented the worsening COVID-19 situation in the country following the recent surge in cases caused by the emerging Omicron variant that resulted to unprecedented increases in the positivity rate among tested individuals that triggered a significant increase in the hospital critical care utilization rate of hospitals in most parts of the country in just a span of less than one week.

Based on the studies conducted by experts providing advice to the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases, unvaccinated adults remain to be a serious threat to the vaccinated population as well as to children 5 years old and below, and to those who are immune-compromised because they are the most likely to be infected, and thereby, the same who transmit the deadly virus and in whom the COVID-19 virus most likely mutates into other variants of concern because of the absence of the vaccine that will protect them from contracting severe infection of the virus.

The resolution is in support of the marching orders of the President for local governments to help in restricting the movement of unvaccinated persons to prevent them from contracting severe infection that might compromise their health condition and to help in mitigating the ongoing surge in cases which started right at the start of the new year.    

Initially, some local governments and private establishments around the country adhered to the President’s orders and imposed the needed restrictions to unvaccinated individuals where they will be prohibited from entering public areas or convergence areas of people until such time that they will be vaccinated.

Health authorities time and again pronounced that all the available vaccines are capable of protecting individuals who will be inoculated and that the same will protect them from severe infection of the deadly virus that is why the government is bullish in achieving the desired population protection and herd immunity of the populace.

For its part, the Department of Transportation and Railways (DOTR) issued a directive for the strict implementation of the no vaccine, no ride that will take effect on Monday, January 17, 2022where unvaccinated individuals will no longer be allowed to board public transport vehicles to help convince them to be vaccinated with the available vaccines being inoculated to the populace. – Dexter A. See