Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 26) — Trips to chilly Baguio City is once again possible as the local government announced it is opening the city to tourists fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The city’s public information office posted on Tuesday that adults who have completed their COVID-19 shots are not required to take an RT-PCR test, but they must present their vaccination card. Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated adults cannot enter the city.
Children aged 12 to 17 must present a recent negative RT-PCR or antigen test result upon arrival regardless if they’re unvaccinated or have received one dose. It added that minors aged 11 and below will be tested, with the consent of their parent or accompanying guardian.
All visitors must register via visita.baguio.gov.ph at least one day before the trip. They also have to undergo the triage for health screening and verification of documents upon entry. Symptomatic visitors, regardless of vaccination status or test result, will be immediately tested and isolated.
Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong is hopeful it can reenergize their tourism industry that was heavily impacted by the Delta coronavirus variant.
“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.
Baguio City has a total of 28, 859 COVID-19 infections with 890 active cases as of Sunday. It has fully vaccinated over 163,000 residents and is gearing up for pediatric vaccination slated to start on Oct. 29.
