Negros Occidental’s provincial government is arranging another return flight for Negrenses stranded in Metro Manila due to travel restrictions brought by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis.
Zeaphard Caelian, chief of the Provincial Disaster Management Program Division, said on Wednesday he has already requested for authorization and clearance from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
Caelian said they submitted a copy of the passenger manifest and the certification from the provincial government stating its acceptance of the returning residents.
“We submitted it earlier today. We have tentative flight schedules. Once it is approved, we will have another mercy flight,” he said.
On April 22, a total of 46 Negrenses stranded in Metro Manila arrived at the Bacolod-Silay Airport in Silay City on board a Cebu Pacific special flight. The group included 28 females, including an elderly, two toddlers, and an infant, as well as 18 males, including a toddler and two senior citizens.
They were immediately brought to the patient care center in EB Magalona to undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine.
The first special flight arranged by the provincial government arrived on March 18, carrying some 89 Negrenses stranded in Luzon.
They were flown from Clark International Airport also on board a Cebu Pacific flight.
As of Wednesday, the provincial government has already assisted some 343 stranded Negrenses, including overseas Filipino workers, who came from Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon, as well as from Panay and Cebu.
A total of 154 have been released after completing the 14-day mandatory quarantine either in the Provincial Healing Center in EB Magalona or Mambukal Resort in Murcia.
The latest batch of stranded Negrenses who returned home on Tuesday night included 24 OFWs, who traveled by boat from Manila through arrangements made by the Maritime Industry Authority.
(Nanette Guadalquiver ndb via pna)