Lapu-Lapu gov’t monitors 16 travellers from countries with cases of new COVID strain

Grace Carungay, head of the Lapu-Lapu City Epidemiological and Surveillance Unit (CESU), check on the drivers undergoing a swab test in this October 2, 2020 photo in the Lapu-Lapu City Hoops Dome. Today, Carungay says that the city government is monitoring 16 travellers, who came from countries with confirmed cases of the new COVID-19 strain. | file photo

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Philippines —The Lapu-Lapu City government is monitoring 16 additional travellers from countries with confirmed cases of the new variant of Sars-coV-2. Sars-coV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.

Grace Carungay, head of the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU), said that these travelers had arrived at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport on January 5, 2021.

Read: MCIA closes port for non-Filipino passengers from flagged countries

“They came from Dubai, Germany, Qatar, Oman, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom,” Carungay said.

She said that they were now being quarantined for 14-days at the city’s isolation facility in Barangay Gun-ob and had already underwent swab testing.

She said that the first batch of travelers that arrived at the airport last December 30 and 31, 2021, already got a negative result of the RT-PCR testing.

Read: What we do and don’t know about new COVID-19 mutations

Carungay said that all nine of them were already advised to continue their quarantine at their home. 

“Na-send na nato sila sa ilaha to continue their quarantine,” she added.

(We already sent them home where they will continue their quarantine.)

She said that the travelers’ houses had passed their standards, such as having their own room and comfort room, and the absence of a senior citizen at their residences.

Carungay said that the quarantine period of the first batch of travelers would already end within this week./dbs