High volume checkpoints should be prioritized for RapidPass –DOST

High volume checkpoints should be prioritized in the RapidPass system which seeks to provide unhampered mobility to frontliners amid the ongoing enhanced community quarantine due to the COVID-19 threat, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said Friday.

“We want to prioritize critical areas. Nag-aantay po kami ng go signal from our clients, the [Department of Interior and Local Government], and the [Department of National Defense], kung anong marching order, para ma-train namin ang aming staff,” DOST Secretary Fortunanto dela Peña said in a news conference.

“Based on our test, iyong Marikina-Marcos highway ang high volume. But we are still waiting for our clients to tell us saan kami magsisimula. We [initially] did identify 56 checkpoints,” dela Peña added.

Under the RapidPass scheme, QR codes would be issued to health care workers and other employees of essential services so as to limit contact between exempted individuals and personnel manning checkpoints.

Dela Peña said that the government thus far had 200 mobile phones which would be used to scan QR codes for the RapidPass system.

Included in the list of essential service workers who could pass thru checkpoints were health care workers, grocery and bank employees, journalists, funeral service workers, government officials, among others.

Dela Peña, however, clarified that having a QR code was not a stamp of good health, and thus, those in possession of it would still be subjected to temperature check at checkpoints.

President Rodrigo Duterte placed Luzon under enhanced community quarantine since March 16 due to the COVID-19 threat which already killed 136 people as of 4 p.m. of April 3.

The enhanced community quarantine banned mass transport, prohibited mass gatherings, imposed a curfew, all of which resulted in work stoppage in most industries.

The Philippines has already recorded 3,018 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of 4 p.m. of April 3. Of this number, 52 have recovered. — DVM, GMA News