By Antonio Colina IV
DAVAO CITY – A total of 3,635 individuals who had been stranded since the suspension of air, sea, and land travels in March have been flown out of Davao City as of Thursday since April 29.
During her interview over Davao City Disaster Radio (87.5), Mayor Sara Duterte said the local government also facilitated the arrival of 2,266 inbound travelers who arrived in the city via land or air travel after being stranded in different parts of the country due to the lockdowns implemented because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic..
The mayor said both inbound and outbound travelers have undergone health screening to ensure that no passenger infected with COVID-19 would board the vehicles or the mercy and sweeper flights.
She said the city facilitated the arrival of two flights on Thursday, and three flights on Wednesday carrying returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). These flights were sponsored by Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
She said the local government is anticipating more OWWA-organized flights as she was told that there were still more than 1,000 passengers arriving.
Duterte said some of the passengers were not residents of Davao, but added the local government has already coordinated with national agencies to receive and assist them in their return to their respective hometowns.
“We continue to receive them, and then our land borders are still doing the health screening for now. And even after quarantine, we will still continue doing the health screening as long as there is no cure or vaccine because we should not lower or vigilance in looking out for those who manifest symptoms,” she said.
From May 6 to May 26, she said 12 arriving passengers have failed the health screening with four testing positive for COVID-19 using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction machine (RT-PCR), and the eight others awaiting results of their swab tests.
As of Thursday, the Department of Health-Davao recorded a total of 277 confirmed COVID-19 positives with no new cases. Of this total, 135 have recovered and 28 have died.
Davao City reported 253 cases, the highest not only in the region but the entire Mindanao. Davao del Norte reported 14, Davao del Sur 3, Davao de Oro 2, Davao Oriental 3, and Davao Occidental 2.