PRESIDENTIAL Spokesperson Harry Roque announced on Friday, December 4, 2020, that face-to-face workshops, trainings, seminars and related events may now be allowed up to 30 percent capacity of the venue in areas under general community quarantine (GCQ).
Among the events allowed are congresses, conferences, board meetings, colloquia, conclaves, symposia and consumer trade shows.
The venues allowed to hold such gatherings are restaurants, restaurants in or attached to hotels, ballrooms and function halls within hotels, venues within hotel premises and mall atria.
Roque said the Department of Tourism (DOT) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will issue the guidelines for this new policy, which was approved during the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) meeting Thursday evening, December 3.
Meanwhile, Roque said the IATF requires all establishments to adopt the safety seal certification program in addition to the StaySafe application and its QR code system for contact tracing purposes.
"All establishments, such as government offices, private companies, hotels and business establishments and public transportation units are thus required to adopt the safety seal," Roque said.
He said the IATF has directed the DTI, Department of Health (DOH), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), DOT, and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to issue a joint memorandum circular listing the requirements for a safety seal.
Among the requirements is the use of the Stay Safe application, which generate a QR code to be displayed in all entrances of all establishments.
The Stay Safe.ph system, which was developed through the partnership of the IATF and MultiSys Technology Corporation (MultiSys), facilitates contact tracing.
It generates a unique QR code that serves as a digital logbook system in establishments and offices. (SunStar Philippines)