Tourists headed to the world-famous Boracay Island can now use the cheaper and faster saliva-based reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, after authorities allowed it as part of efforts to hasten the recovery of the tourism industry.

Department of Tourism (DOT) Sec. Bernadette Romulo-Puyat has welcomed the latest move of the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF) to accept saliva RT-PCR test results as an alternative to the swab test, which is among the travel requirements imposed on people going to the island.

Puyat said this was approved during the BIATF meeting on Thursday, March 18, with the provision that the saliva test should be administered by the Philippine Red Cross and other testing laboratories approved and accredited by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health (DOH).

The tourism chief also expressed willingness to support funding for an RT-PCR or gene expert machine as the local government of Malay in Aklan--Boracay's gateway province--may propose.

Boracay Island is under a modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) -- the most relaxed quarantine status in the country--amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

With this, the DOT recommended to the IATF that tourists from Metro Manila below 15 years old and above 65 years old should not be restricted from going to Boracay as long as they have a valid plane ticket.

Meanwhile, the tourism chief reminded tourists and stakeholders to continuously enforce strict minimum health and safety protocols to for the sake of everybody's safety.

In a virtual press briefing following the BIATF meeting, Malay Acting Mayor Frolibar Bautista said they have recently recorded an average of 700 tourists visiting Boracay Island per day.

Bautista said the numbers have been increasing since the island reopened to tourists in October last year amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Aside from a negative RT-PCR test result taken 72 hours before travel, entry requirements in Boracay also include hotel confirmation from a DOT-accredited accommodation establishment issued with a Certificate of Authority to Operate (CAO); a valid ID showing proof of residence in an area under general community quarantine (GCQ) or MGCQ; and a completed online health declaration form from https://www. touristboracay.com