The government is now considering easing quarantine protocols for repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
During his public address on Wednesday, President Rodrigo R. Duterte said he consulted medical experts on how to address the proposal of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to shorten the 14-day quarantine rule for OFWs and other inbound travelers.
The government implemented the 14-day rule last January to arrest the Covid-19 surge in the country.
Among the experts present in the meeting were Edsel Salvana, Philippine Genome Center Cynthia Saloma as well as Anna Ong-Lim and Marissa Alejandria of the Department of Health (DOH) Technical Advisory Group.
Too long
Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said the current quarantine period is “too long” and its is depleting the funds of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to provide accommodation for OFWs.
OWWA earlier reported only P1.4 billion of its P11 billion budget this year for the quarantine hotel accommodation of OFWs remains.
Bello asked for the restoration of the previous protocol prior wherein OFWs were immediately tested for Covid-19 upon their arrival and allowed to go home if the result is negative.
To support his claims, he noted only 1.5 percent of those OFWs, who were tested this year, were infected with Covid-19.
“They have worked abroad for a long time to earn for their family and now that they are back, they have to stay 14 days in quarantine. Notwithstanding the fact that after 5 days they have been found to be negative [for Covid-19],” Bello said.
Possible options
The medical experts are against the previous protocol since the stressed it may take time before an infected person shows any symptoms or are detected to be afflicted by Covid-19 through test.
They said OFWs should remain under quarantine for not less than 7 days. After which, they could be finally be tested.
Another alternative, is for the OFWs to forego the testing all together and just remain under strict quarantine for 10 days in the concerned local government units (LGU), quarantine facility or at their homes.
“If they will show any symptoms, then that is the only time they will undergo testing,” Saloma said.
Duterte did not announce which of the options presented by the medical experts panel he will support.
But he assured will not make any “compromise,” by accepting a proposal, which will be contrary to the position of the doctors.
Bello said he is open to the proposal of the medical experts to reduce the quarantine period to as mush as 10 days until he could present DOLE’s official position on the matter to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) for consideration.
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