Tarlac town rejects OFWs coming from virus-hit China

TRAVEL BUSINESS AS USUAL A travel and tours fair is held at a shopping mall in Pasay City on Friday, with one of the staff members wearing a medical mask for protection, despite the new coronavirus scare that has made frequent travelers and vacationers think twice. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday assured the government and residents of Capas in Tarlac province that all necessary precautions would be taken to prevent them from contracting the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) from any of the Filipinos who would be quarantined at an athletes’ housing facility in a part of their town after they are flown home from China where the virus originated.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said 45 Filipinos would be flown home on Sunday from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the viral outbreak that has already killed more than 630 people and infected over 31,000 others in China and over two dozen countries and territories.

Council resolution

After their chartered plane lands at Clark International Airport, they would be immediately bused to the Athletes’ Village, a cluster of five-story buildings inside New Clark City (NCC), where they would be quarantined for 14 days.

The Capas municipal council on Friday convened an emergency session and passed a resolution objecting to the use of the Athletes’ Village by the returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), amid fears of a contagion.

The resolution, approved by all 11 members, said allowing the use of the Athletes’ Village would “create a stigma and defeat the original intention of attracting investors in the area.”

It said some of the housekeeping and utility personnel of the sports facility would be “highly susceptible to contract and transmit the virus.”

Capas Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan said he was in favor of repatriating the Filipinos from China, but he felt “perturbed” that the DOH did not consult the municipal government about its plan.

Meant as investment site

Catacutan said the DOH must find an alternative quarantine site.

Capas Vice Mayor Roseller Rodriguez said the town’s residents were not prepared to deal with the quarantine of the OFWs from China and the possible spread of the disease.

Rodriguez said NCC was projected as an investment site and the DOH plan would scare away investors, adding that it would leave “a mark in the history that the [NCC] was used as a quarantine station.”

“Do you think investors will still go here?” he said.

READY FOR ISOLATION Filipinos from the Chinese city of Wuhan, ground zero of the novel coronavirus outbreak, are set to occupy the Athletes’ Village in New Clark City in Tarlac during their 14-day quarantine. Health workers in protection gear, like the nurse at left, will monitor them during the isolation period. —PHOTOS FROM BCDA GROUP FACEBOOK PAGE / RICHARD A. REYES

Rodriguez, a lawyer, said they would seek a temporary restraining order against the plan.Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said personnel from the DOH would accompany the group from Wuhan to check whether anyone had fallen ill during the flight back to the Philippines. Upon their arrival, they would again be screened by the Bureau of Quarantine and those who are sick would be taken straight to a hospital.

“The only persons who would be brought to the quarantine facility are those who are healthy and asymptomatic,” Domingo said.

The movement of those in quarantine will be limited to the building where they are housed and they will be served packed meals, he added.

Domingo appealed to Capas officials to reconsider their opposition to the emergency quarantine plan. ‘Welcome our countrymen’

“These are our countrymen who are coming home. We will be putting them in a place that is safe and far from the community. We appeal that they welcome our countrymen,” he told reporters.

“All the agencies of government are going to do everything possible to make sure that the [Filipinos] who are coming in will not come in contact with the community. The DOH and all other agencies are going to make all the necessary arrangements to make sure that there is no risk to the community,” Domingo said.

Used during SEA Games

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier said the NCC facility would be refurbished to isolate the Filipinos from Wuhan.NCC, which is under the jurisdiction of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), straddles the towns of Capas and Bamban. 

The Athletes’ Village housed some of the delegates of the 30th Southeast Asian Games last year.

NCC is set to host the Asean Para Games next month. Domingo said the facility would be disinfected to make it safe for the athletes.

The BCDA, which offered the Athletes’ Village as a quarantine site, assured the Capas municipal government on Friday that all preventive and precautionary measures were being put in place to ensure that the adjacent communities were kept safe and protected.

As of noon Friday, Domingo said there were 215 persons who had been placed under observation for possible 2019-nCoV infection.

Chinese couple

Of the total, three were confirmed cases, all Chinese, including one who had died and another who had returned to China; two who had died but were found negative for the virus; 184 now confined in various hospitals; 17 discharged but under strict monitoring; and nine who refused to be admitted despite having traveled to China or had been exposed to someone suspected to be infected.

Domingo said the authorities have identified all of the 441 people who had been in close contact with the Chinese couple who tested positive for the disease, including the one who died.

Only 203 were placed on home quarantine while 32 were being monitored since they showed symptoms of the disease, he said. The 206 others could not be reached due to their “erroneous contact information,” Domingo said.

He said 106 people who had come in close contact with the third confirmed case—a Chinese woman who had returned to China—have been identified. The DOH has placed 22 of these individuals under home quarantine, while four symptomatic cases are being monitored.

The Philippine National Police said it could not locate 89 of the 189 passengers who flew on two domestic flights with the Chinese couple.

2 domestic flights

Police Col. Roderick Armamento, deputy director and spokesperson of the PNP’s Criminal Detection and Investigation Group (CIDG), said they were able to contact 100 passengers, including six who manifested symptoms of the virus and were now confined in hospital under the care of the DOH. 

The CIDG was tapped to trace passengers of the two domestic flights boarded by the Chinese couple—59 on the flight from Cebu City to Dumaguete City on Jan. 21 and 130 on the flight from Dumaguete to Manila on Jan. 25.

As of 10 a.m. on Friday, Armamento said they have contacted 34 passengers—24 locals and 10 foreigners on the Cebu-Dumaguete flight—and 66 on the Dumaguete-Manila flight, through phone numbers they listed on embarkation cards.He said some of the other passengers did not have any contact information, while the others were either not responding to calls or text messages, so they sent out messages through emails and messaging applications, such as Facebook, Viber, WeChat and Whatsapp. —WITH REPORTS FROM MELVIN GASCON, TONETTE OREJAS AND JEROME ANING