Government allows one-seat apart policy in shuttle services for workers

By Prince Golez

The government has allowed the one-seat-apart arrangement or the full seating capacity in commissioned shuttle services for employees of permitted offices or establishments.

In a statement Friday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque announced that the government’s coronavirus (Covid-19) task force approved to increase the operational capacity of commissioned shuttle services to operate at full capacity “provided there are necessary dividers and other health and safety measures are in place.”

The Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Trade and Industry will issue the necessary advisories for private shuttles in this regard, said Roque.

The secretary also noted that the Inter Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases also approved yesterday the following recommendations of the sub-Technical Working Group on Information and Communications Technology Solutions:

*Data collected through digital contact tracing applications shall conform with specific minimum data requirements as stated in the Department of Health (DOH) Memorandum No. 2020-0436 and other relevant issuances;

*All data collected through digital contact tracing applications used by DOH-accredited Covid-19 health facilities, Temporary Treatment and Monitoring Facilities, hospitals, establishments, workplaces, transportation vehicles/ hubs, and local government units (LGUs) shall be submitted to a centralized tracing data repository, which will be linked to either COVID-Kaya or the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

Meanwhile, Roque said that StaySafe.ph, the government’s digital contact tracing application, will be made mandatory for adoption and use in all national government agencies and LGUs.

“Private establishments, facilities and offices are encouraged to use Stafysafe.ph while for those with existing contact tracing applications they are enjoined to integrate their systems with the Staysafe.ph system,” he added.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)