Three tourists who presented fake negative swab test results to enter Boracay Island tested positive for COVID-19.
The tourists who were from Metro Manila were brought to the provincial quarantine facility Aklan Training Center (ATC) in Kalibo in Aklan. They were arrested on January 21 after authorities discovered they falsified their reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
Their two companions, who also presented fake swab test results, were also brought to the ATC but they tested negative for COVID-19.
Tourists going to Boracay are required to submit a negative RT-PCR test result released within 72 hours before they are allowed to enter the island.
The group was given provisional quick reaction (QR) codes while their RT-PCR test results were being verified, according to lawyer Selwyn Ibarreta, Aklan provincial administrator and head of the provincial COVID-19 Technical Working Group.
When authorities verified that the test results were fake, they immediately checked the tourists on the hotel they listed in their application but they were not there.
They later found them at another hotel where the police and health personnel arrested them.
The group’s swab test results showed that three of the five were infected with COVID-19.
Health authorities are already conducting contact-tracing to identify the tourists’ close contacts.
3 Boracay tourists who faked swab test results test positive for COVID-19
Meanwhile, another tourist, who also came from Metro Manila, but from another group, was also found to have faked her RT-PCR.
She was brought to ATC but tested negative of COVID-19.
Since December 2020, authorities have intercepted or apprehended 26 Boracay tourists who submitted falsified test results.
Twelve were able to enter the island, while the rest were intercepted at the airport or shipping port in Caticlan.
Last month, a passenger who arrived in Davao City was arrested after he presented a fake swab test.
The passenger surrendered, according to the airport’s health monitoring team, and confirmed that he was positive for COVID-19.
According to Davao City public safety and security command center chief Angel Sumagaysay, 33 people have been caught presenting fake RT-PCR test results, and 10 of them have already been charged.
tourists’someone who travels for pleasureMore (Definitions, Synonyms, Translation)