BACOLOD CITY – A woman from this city was reportedly stopped at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and prevented from leaving for Dammam, Saudi Arabia on October 2 after it was found that she had tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

It was the Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center Task Force (EOC-TF), which alerted the National Inter-Agency Task Force (NIATF) against COVID-19, about the prospective overseas Filipina worker (OFW) who managed to get on a flight to Manila despite testing positive for COVID-19 here.

According to the EOC-TF, the OFW had actually tested negative four times in previous swab tests as she waited for the go-signal that will allow her to leave for Dammam, Saudi Arabia where a job awaited her.

However, when her call finally came to leave for the Middle East, she tested positive on her fifth swab test that was conducted on September 29. She learned of the result on October 1.

Despite learning that she was positive for COVID-19, she was still able to board a plane for Manila, and was supposed to take a flight for Dammam at 1 p.m. on October 2 before authorities caught up with her.

It was the EOC-TF, through IATF Chief Implementer in the Visayas Mel Feliciano, that immediately coordinated with NIATF to locate the “positive index” for extraction from NAIA.

When found by authorities, the Bacoleña OFW peacefully submitted herself to the extracting officers, Feliciano said.  

“She was consistently negative in her four swabs, yet yielded positive in her fifth. It was unfortunate that before her awaited flight going out of the country, she was infected,” Feliciano said.

“Let this be an example to educate people that one breach of health protocols can lead to infection,” he added.

Meanwhile, EOC Deputy (Medical) Dr. Chris Sorongon assured that health protocols were properly observed during the woman’s extraction. 

Sorongon said that information was being gathered to determine other passengers who were exposed to the OFW in her previous flights. 

“Contact tracing is being done, for sure. As for what she violated, our legal minds can help us out with it,” he added.

Sorongon also suspects that the woman may have had exposure to the virus while she was processing her travel documents before her fifth swab test.

The woman had to undergo five swab tests in view of Saudi Arabia’s COVID-19 health protocols for travelers. 

City Administrator Em Ang, EOC executive director and deputy for administration and operations, said that visitors to Saudi Arabia coming from countries experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak are required to produce a coronavirus-free PCR certificate upon arrival.

The certificate has to be issued within 24 hours prior to the passenger’s boarding flight to Riyadh, Jeddah, or Dammam, she added.