MANILA – The country is not ready to ease its quarantine protocols for returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
This was after President Rodrigo Duterte declined the proposal of Labor secretary Silvestre Bello III to shorten the quarantine period of returning OFWs.
Bello said the seven to nine-day stay of the OFWs in a quarantine hotel has diminished the funds of their department.
“I’m not quite comfortable with the relaxation that’s being brought about now,” Duterte said. “I am not ready for a compromise, lalo na ngayong may iba’t ibang COVID-19 variants.”
“‘Yung ibang sakit siguro, puwede pa ‘yung mga rabies rabies diyan. Pero ito, talagang as you have said talagang dapo dito, dapo doon and then you have the exponential problem how to take care of the Philippines,” he added.
Infectious disease expert Edsel Salvaña, meanwhile, said the variants of concern enter the country through returning travelers, noting that it takes three to five days before a person can test positive for the virus.
He recommended that the quarantine period can be shortened from 14 days to 10 days if the person does not exhibit the symptoms of the virus./PN
