By Antonio Colina IV
DAVAO CITY – Island Garden City of Samal (IGACOS) Mayor Al David T. Uy said the local government has prepared stricter health security measures to ensure the safety of visitors as the island is expected to reopen at limited capacity next month.
Island Garden City of Samal (IGACOS) Mayor Al David T. Uy
(Facebook / MANILA BULLEITN)
Uy said the local government will be putting in place more health screenings in various barangays across the island, most especially those areas with many public and private resorts, specifically Barangays Camudmud, Caliclic, Aundanao, and Talicud Islands.
The island has a total of 200 resorts, he said.
He added the Department of Tourism (DOT)-Davao Director Tanya R. Tan reached out to the local government last week regarding the safety measures that should be put in place by the island and the resort owners to be allowed to operate in July.
He said IGACOS was already preparing for the possible influx of tourists, but maintained that the resorts would be operating at 50 percent capacity while the local government is planning to regulate the entry of visitors to the island to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
He said the resort owners will be required to comply with the requirements set by the DOT-Davao to ensure the safety of the tourists such as the setting up of health protocols, including, among others, sanitizers, non-contact scanners, and foot bath.
“On our part, parallel with DOT, those requirements should be met for the safety of tourists,” Uy said.
The mayor said the local government will soon be assigning a QR code to each visitor of the island, so that it would be easier to monitor movement around Samal Island, and to make contact tracing more efficient should they test positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection.
“If you test positive for COVID-19, we will know the patient who must be isolated, including their close contacts, and the areas they have visited (within the island),” he said.
Uy said they were also looking at strengthening the health protocols at the port of entries of IGACOS.
“Eventually, we will slowly allow the entries of those who have properties and businesses in Samal once we have the QR tracking system,” Uy said.
But Uy added that he would not hesitate to delay the reopening of the island once he finds out that the needed health protocols were not being implemented by the resorts.
The IGACOS has three active COVID-19 cases, he said.