Measures vs MERS-Cov in place at airport

THERMAL scanners and security protocols are among the safety precautions put in place at the Mactan Cebu International Airport to monitor international passengers arriving from countries hit by the MERS-Cov disease.

Andrew Acquaah Harrison, executive advisor of terminal operator GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC), said they were working closely with local health authorities in exercising safety precautions and procedures.

Harrison said they have continued to follow the standard security protocols, including a health check for all international arrivals.

“Everyone is required to complete a health card upon landing, and they are processed at the health counters in the immigration area,” he said in a statement.

Harrison encouraged passengers to declare and notify health authorities if they have any symptoms of the dreaded Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-Cov) (See Facts about MERS-Cov) and other infectious diseases.

Aside from the security protocol, the Bureau of Quarantine has also installed several equipment like thermal scanners that detect a passenger’s body temperature.

Earlier, the Department of Health also encouraged passengers to truthfully answer the health checklist distributed at the airport.

The safety precautions are needed especially with the Mers-Cov outbreak in South Korea. (See related story on Page 23)

At present, there are nine direct flights from South Korea to Cebu. These include seven daily flights from Incheon and two weekly flights from Busan.

As of March, South Koreans remained the top tourist group in the Central Visayas region.

Visitors from Korea reached 185,967, or 42.76 percent of the total 434,951 foreign tourist arrivals in the region from January to March this year.

Of the 185,967 Koreans who visited the region, 175,356 stayed in Cebu.

Reynan Cimafranca, unit head of the Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (RESU-7), also gave the assurance that Central Visayas is ready to handle any MERS-Cov cases in the region.

Government hospitals like the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) are tasked to handle MERS-Cov cases.

VSMMC has negative pressure rooms that can treat the virus that circulates in the air where the patient will be isolated. At least five negative pressure rooms  are in VSMMC.

The negative pressure rooms were constructed during the Severe Acute Respiratory (SARs) outbreak in 2003.

“If the person is symptomatic, then he will be isolated for 14 days while those asymptomatic can undergo home isolation that will follow DOH’s guidelines,” Cimafranca added.