Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte bared that two of the passengers of the sweeper flight initiated by the Overseas Welfare Workers Administration (OWWA) failed the initial health screening conducted by the City Health Office.
However, she said the two sweeper flight passengers, who were among 50 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) returning to Mindanao from Manila via the Davao International Airport, were immediately brought to the Southern Philippines Medical Center for swab testing.
Upon the arrival of the sweeper flight to the DIA, all 50 passengers were subjected to a Rapid Diagnostic Test and check up for respiratory disease infection.
“Today, naa tay isa ka niabot nga flight, and duha ka passengers ang nibagsak [sa health screening], so gipadala ni nato sila [sa SPMC] for swabbing.”
City Health Officer Dr. Josephine Villafuerte said the health screening determined if an arriving passenger will be quarantined at an isolation facility, sent to the SPMC for swab test, or will undergo the mandatory 14-day home quarantine.
“We have a strict health screening to all those who will arrive in the city as part of the city’s measure for Covid-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019),” she said.
Previous sweeper flights also yielded Covid-19 positive individuals.
City Tourism Operation Officer Gene Rose Tecson said that while all stranded returning individuals to Mindanao needed to show medical certificates or PCR test results showing them negative of the virus before boarding the plane, those who tested positive might have contracted the virus at a later date.
“Kasi they are tested days or weeks before the flight. Dapat sana pag negative nila mag board na sila. The negative result will not make them safe from the virus, it will just make them complacent,” Tecson said.
Tecson said that to ensure that the returning individuals are safe from Covid-19, the health screening upon their arrival is being conducted.
Since April 29, hundreds of individuals stranded in various parts of the country had returned home via Davao City. More sweeper flights might also be arriving in the next few days.
More than 2,000 individuals stranded in the city had also been assisted by the city government in returning to their places of origin. CIO