Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 23) — Filipinos traveling abroad are no longer required to undergo an antigen test before leaving the country, the COVID-19 task force said on Friday.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases spokesperson Harry Roque said they amended Resolution No. 79, which requires travelers to present a negative antigen test result as a pre-boarding requirement. They previously required all outbound travelers to present antigen test results unless the destination requires a negative RT-PCR result. The country allowed non-essential foreign travel of Filipinos starting October 21.
The Department of Health has said that an antigen test is only effective in detecting infections if a person is already showing symptoms or if the person has a high viral load. RT-PCR, although costly and not the most time efficient, remains to be the gold standard in detecting COVID-19 infection.
