THE AKLAN provincial government will be releasing a new executive order designed to strengthen the health and safety protocols of Boracay Island, following succeeding reports of workers from several resorts that were found positive with the Covid-19 virus.
This was disclosed by a BusinessMirror source who attended a meeting between the local government units and tourism stakeholders on Monday. A separate source said one of the possible measures being considered is requiring hotels and resorts with at least 20 rooms, as well as the municipality and barangay, to build their own separate isolation and quarantine facilities for suspected and confirmed cases of Covid-19.
At present, the island has no quarantine facility for Covid-positive patients. “The protocol followed is the Covid-positive person is brought to ATC (Aklan Training Center) in Kalibo for quarantine, and not on the island,” said another source, a tourism leader on the island. Three resorts have already been found to have workers positive for Covid-19: Discovery Shores Boracay, Shangri-la’s Boracay Resort and Spa, and Hue Hotel Boracay. (See, “DOT probes Boracay hotel’s possible health violations,” in the BusinessMirror, Feb. 1, 2021.)
This developed as sources from Hue Hotel sought to clarify the circumstances behind their handling of their Covid-positive staff, who works in the housekeeping department.
Covid-positive staff was immediately isolated
The sources, who requested anonymity as they were not allowed to speak on behalf of the hotel management, admitted their workers went back to work immediately after being tested. “We were not told at the Ciriaco Memorial Hospital [where the workers took part in the mass testing] nor by the municipal health office that we should quarantine our staff while waiting for the test results,” the sources said.
They added, when hotel management found out that one of their workers was Covid-positive, they immediately isolated him “at the fifth floor of the hotel, where there were not guests,” then called the municipal health office (MHO) to have him picked up. “But since he was asymptomatic, they told us he could just be home-quarantined, because that’s what they also did to other workers [from other resorts] who were found Covid-positive. In fact, we were told it was okay for us to keep him in the guest room.”
They continued, “But from what we know, as per DOT [Department of Tourism] rules, we shouldn’t mix quarantine guests and regular guests, that’s why we thought maybe we could quarantine him in the apartment beside us, which we use for our casual workers. But there was another family living in that building who had children, so we decided it wasn’t wise to move [Name of Covid-positive worker] there.”
Municipal health OK’d home quarantine
Hotel management then decided to use one of the two small houses serving as the barracks of their security guards on the Tulubhan property of Hue’s owner, sitting on a 3,000-square-meter lot. “The MHO approved it as a quarantine facility. So we brought him there on Friday [January 29], gave him a small ref, groceries, Internet and cellphone load so he won’t feel lonely, and beddings from the hotel. We constantly asked him if he was okay, and he told us that he was. We would not have brought our staff there if they [MHO] didn’t approve it.”
Concerned friends of the Covid-positive worker, however, started informing local and national media, as well as national government officials and stakeholders-leaders about what had allegedly transpired. This led to the closure of Hue for 48 hours for disinfection. However, the Covid-positive worker continued to remain at the makeshift quarantine facility until Sunday, when he was finally brought to ATC in Kalibo, about 75 kilometers away from Boracay.
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