Amid logistics issues and psychological pressure on workers abroad, the government is urged to recalibrate the testing and quarantine protocols for returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Officials of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) made this call following the new protocol from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on returning OFWs.
In a statement issued Monday, March 22, PRC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Senator Richard Gordon and OWWA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac raised their concerns on the new IATF-EID protocol which now requires incoming Filipinos to proceed to quarantine facilities upon arrival and to undergo coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing only on the 5th day after their arrival - or after six days - including the day of arrival.
Gordon lamented that this is a very burden not only on the government but for the people as well. In a radio interview on March 21, he also noted the “psychological pressure” on OFWs who have urgent family matters at home as well as the financial burden that returning non-OFWs have to shoulder.
PRC Head of Molecular Laboratories Dr. Paulyn Jean Ubial, on the other hand noted that compared to just operating a megaswabbing facility, the current system - where members of the Philippine Coast Guard travel to 108 quarantine hotels every day to collect only a specimen or two, before submitting all the samples to laboratories for processing - is an “operational nightmare.”
Given this, Gordon noted that issues like this has to be ironed out as soon as possible. “Everyone involved in the IATF should meet so they could see problems of the Coast Guard, of the airports, of the hotels, of the technologists and healthcare workers,” he added.
Meanwhile, Cacdac said the OWWA “sounded an early warning signal” because the agency’s 2021 budget of P6.2 billion could be depleted by April or May.
It currently spends around P30 million per day for the accommodations of 10,418 OFWs - each having an expected stay at the hotels for a total of 8 to 9 days. “I agree that there is a need to review the process given the sentiments of our OFWs, the logistics issues and budgetary issues we have right now,” Cacdac added.