Unvaccinated public and private employees in Iloilo City will not be allowed to report to work starting Dec. 4 unless they present their negative RT-PCR test results.

This is in compliance with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF-MEID) resolution directing all establishments and employers to require their employees doing on-site work to get vaccinated against COVID-19 supposedly beginning Dec. 1.

The mandatory vaccination of on-site workers is also stipulated in Executive Order (EO) No.144 issued Tuesday, Nov. 30, by Mayor Jerry Treñas.

The EO sets the guidelines for the extension of the city’s Alert Level 2 status.

“All establishments and employees in the public and private sector shall require their eligible employees who are tasked to do on-site work to be vaccinated against COVID-19, especially in areas where there are sufficient supplies of vaccines,” the EO stated.

“Eligible employees who remain to be unvaccinated may not be terminated solely for the said reason but they shall be required to undergo RT-PCR tests at their own expense for purposes of on-site work. Antigen tests may be regularly at resorted to when RT-PCR capacity is insufficient or not immediately.”

Public transportation services in the road, rail, maritime, and aviation sectors, as a condition for continuing their operations, are also ordered to requirer all their eligible workers to be fully vaccinated.

Establishments that are not covered by the guidlelines “may nonetheless validly refuse entry and/or deny service to individuals who remain to be unvaccinated, or are merely partially vaccinated, despite being eligible for vaccination.”

But, frontline and emergency services will be allowed continue to render assistance to all persons regardless of vaccination status.

Under the EO, “all workers to be vaccinated during work hours shall not be considered as absent during that period.”

“Only the presentation of a medical clearance issued by a Municipal Health Office, City Health Office, and/or Provincial Health Office or birth certificate, as the case may be shall serve as sufficient and valid proof of ineligibility for vaccination,” it stated.IMT/Photo by Randy Javier Fadrigo