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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider W. Visayan OFWs can go straight home if they test negative for COVID-19

W. Visayan OFWs can go straight home if they test negative for COVID-19

Published May 26, 2020 12:00 am
By Tara Yap ILOILO CITY – With the influx of repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) here, authorities are now allowing OFWs to go straight home if they test negative for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Another batch of repatriated OFWs arrive at Iloilo Airport Tuesday, May 26. (OWWA Region 6 / MANILA BULLETIN) Another batch of repatriated OFWs arrived at Iloilo Airport Tuesday, May 26. (OWWA Region 6 / MANILA BULLETIN) “We have to do this so we can accommodate the others who are going to arrive,” said Atty. Roy Villa, spokesman of the Western Visayas regional task force for COVID-19. This came after President Duterte ordered the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) on Monday, May 25, to send home 24,000 OFWs who have been stranded in Metro Manila to the provinces. Local governments of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo, and Negros Occidental provinces and the highly urbanized cities of Iloilo and Bacolod are reportedly scrambling to find isolation facilities where the OFWs could be taken for another mandatory 14-day quarantine. Villa told The Manila Bulletin Tuesday that the returning OFWs were being tested as they arrive in the region under the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, which is the official diagnostic test for COVID-19. “When they test negative for COVID-19, they can go home and complete the duration of their 14-day quarantine,” Villa explained. Meanwhile, Villa admitted he did not know the total number of OFWs arriving. “We only know once they arrive here,” he added. For Monday’s batch, an estimated 800 OFWs have arrived.  
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