ILOILO City – Since April 9 when the government started transporting back to Western Visayas the overseas workers stranded in Manila and Cebu due to the quarantine, a total of 3,979 have returned to the region, data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed.
These overseas workers were residents of Iloilo province (1,366), Iloilo City (512), Negros Occidental (451), Capiz (458), Aklan (444), Bacolod City (314), Antique (316), and Guimaras (118).
The first batch composed of 74 overseas workers returned to Region 6 on April 9 via Cokaliong Shipping Line. Thirty-five of these were residents of Negros Occidental and 34 were residents of Panay and Guimaras islands.
Since then, according to DOH, the succeeding batches of repatriated overseas workers mostly returned via sweeper flights and 2GO ships.
According to Dr. Marie Jocelyn Te, medical officer for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of DOH Region 6, all the 3,979 repatriated overseas workers underwent reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test and were certified to be negative for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-9) prior to being allowed to return to Western Visayas.
But as can be gleaned from DOH-6’s data itself as of yesterday afternoon, June 9, 48 were positive for COVID-19 when retested upon their return.
Of these 48 cases, 25 already recovered while one died – a 39-year-old male resident of Anilao, Iloilo who had worked in Spain. Here’s the breakdown of the 48 COVID-19-positive repatriated overseas workers:
* Aklan – four
* Antique – four
* Capiz – zero
* Guimaras – three
* Iloilo province – eight
* Negros Occidental – nine
* Bacolod City – seven
* Iloilo City – 13
On May 25, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered concerned government agencies to ensure all overseas Filipino workers stuck in Metro Manila due to the quarantine were brought back to their home provinces. These government agencies were the Department of Labor and Employment, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and DOH.
Delays in the release of their RT-PCR test results have caused many overseas workers to remain in quarantine for far longer than 14 days in Metro Manila.
Overall in Western Visayas, confirmed COVID-19 positive cases reached 127 as of yesterday with 11 deaths, DOH data showed. Eighty-eight have already recovered.
Here are the requirements that stranded overseas workers must meet to return to Region 6 set by the Western Visayas task force on COVID-19:
* overseas worker must have undergone RT-PCR test with negative result within seven days prior to boarding airplane or ship
* overseas worker must have a certification that he has completed 14 days of quarantine
* overseas worker must have a medical certificate affirming him or her to be asymptomatic and in good health condition
Upon their return, the overseas workers must also be retested and observe another 14 days of quarantine.
Why did some overseas workers’ retest here yield COVID-positive results?
DOH-6 epidemiologist Dr. Glen Alonsabe said these repatriates were likely exposed to persons with COVID-19 in Manila after their tests, perhaps because they were not immediately transported to the region and had to extend their stay there for several more days or even weeks.
COVID-19 is the infectious disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus. This new virus and disease were unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China in December 2019.
The disease can spread from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth which are spread when a person with COVID-19 coughs or exhales./PN
