ILOILO City – Around 80 personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Region 6 including their head, Commodore Edgar Boardo, are being quarantined at their office in Bo. Obrero, Lapuz district.
Two PCG personnel from Manila tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), according to Mayor Jerry Treñas, citing information from the Department of Health (DOH).
These two personnel were part of the 38 PCG contingent deployed to the region before the lockdown in March and were pulled out just this July 3 back to Manila.
The quarantine of the PCG Region 6 personnel is a precautionary measure, according to a source at the coastguard’s regional office who asked not to be identified for lack of authority to speak on the matter.
The swabbing of the personnel also started yesterday for COVID-19 testing, according to the source.
It was unclear as of this writing why the two personnel were allowed to leave for Manila with their 36 other colleagues before the results of their RT-PCR (reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction) tests were released.
There results were announced only yesterday by DOH.
The two were swabbed upon reaching Manila and the results were positive again, according to Commander Joe Luviz Mercurio of PCG Iloilo Station.
Nobody would be allowed to leave or enter the PCG Region 6 office until the results of their RT-PCR tests were known, said Mercurio./PN
