At least 155 officers of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) are on standby to augment the agency’s operations at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and Clark International Airport (CIA) amid a surge in the number of its officers affected by COVID-19.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said that these backup officers will serve as an augmentation to render primary inspection duties as some of our frontliners are in quarantine and battling COVID-19.
The augmentation team is composed of officers and acting immigration officers assigned in different back-end offices of its Port Operations Division (POD) as well as its Main office and other offices in the metro.
At present, the BI recorded a total of 158 COVID-positive employees assigned at the POD, 132 of which are assigned at the NAIA, while 14 are assigned at the CIA.
Their NAIA ops also recorded a total of 180 officers in quarantine for being exposed to Covid-positive cases. Vito Barcelo
“We are keeping our augmentation team on standby to be deployed immediately if the number of officers affected rises further,” said Morente.
Morente shared that their office provides swabbing through their Medical and Dental Section for its employees, as well as COVID-19 vaccines, boosters, and pneumococcal vaccines.
“We have a Covid Task Force in charge of crafting proactive measures to fight this virus, as well as ensure that protocols are strictly implemented,” he added. Vito Barcelo