Fully-vaccinated elderly persons can now step out of their homes even for non-essential activities in areas that are under general community quarantine or MGCQ, Malacañang announced on Friday, June 11.

The new policy exempts fully-vaccinated senior citizens over the age of 65 from stay-at-home orders that have been in place for over a year.

“The IATF likewise allowed the movement of fully vaccinated senior citizens in areas under general community quarantine and modified general community quarantine, subject to presentation of a duly issued COVID-19 vaccination card and strict observance of the minimum public health standards,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement.

This means that when an area is placed under the stricter enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ (MECQ), fully-vaccinated seniors must again stay at home, except if they need to go out for essential activities or emergencies.

While outside, fully-vaccinated elderly must still wear masks and face shields, observe social distancing, and avoid crowded or poorly-ventilated places.

No interzonal travel yet

However, even fully-vaccinated senior citizens cannot travel to an area under a different quarantine classification, termed as “interzonal travel” by the government.

“The movement of fully-vaccinated seniors is, however, limited to travel within their zone as interzonal travel is still prohibited, except for point-to-point travel that was previously allowed,” said Roque.

This means, for example, that fully-vaccinated elderly who live in Metro Manila can take a trip to Rizal or other places in “NCR Plus” since this entire geographic area is under the same classification, GCQ.

By point-to-point travel, Roque is referring to hotels or resorts that the Department of Tourism has allowed to operate point-to-point transfers of their guests. In this scheme, resorts arrange for their guests to be directly brought to their location, thereby minimizing transmissions more likely in public modes of transportation. – Rappler.com