THE Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) updated testing requirements for unvaccinated eligible employees.
In areas where there are sufficient supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, all establishments and employers 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.
However, for on-site work purposes, those who remain unvaccinated shall be required to undergo RT-PCR tests once every two weeks or weekly antigen tests.
Meanwhile, employees in the public sector, including local government units, may cover the costs of the RT-PCR or antigen tests to be administered, subject to availability of funds, and civil service, accounting and auditing rules and regulations.
Exempted from this testing requirement are employees with recent COVID-19 infection within 90 days and those with alternative working arrangements that do not require on=site reporting.
Further, testing requirements mentioned above shall be waived for areas under Alert Level 1 classification, subject to the implementation of clinical-based management, including symptomatic testing. However, aforesaid testing requirements shall be reinstated in areas under Alert Level 2 classification or higher.
