LOOK: Filipinos start arriving at Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan City for the repatriation
📷 DFA Undersecretary Brigido Dulay pic.twitter.com/HfBWRWos76
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) February 8, 2020
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 8) — Filipinos who are showing flu-like symptoms in the Chinese city of Wuhan – center of the novel coronavirus outbreak – will not be evacuated, health officials said Saturday ahead of the repatriation.
Gloria Balboa, director of the Department of Health’s Emergency Management Bureau, said there will be a scanning process before any of the 56 repatriates can board the plane that will bring them to the Clark City International Airport in Pampanga.
Those who have red-flag symptoms for the new coronavirus or 2019-nCoV such as fever, cough, and cold, will be sent to a hospital in China instead for quarantine.
“Ang policy is hindi na isasama yung mga may (The policy is to not include those with) flu-like symptoms. We will repatriate the asymptomatic ones kaya meron ulit thermal scanning and medical assessment just before boarding the plane,” Balboa said.
Repatriates are expected to arrive in the country Sunday morning. They will go through another scanning process. Those who will show signs of flu upon disembarking will be isolated at the Jose B. Lingad Hospital in San Fernando, Pampanga.
Officials assured that the hospital has adequate facilities to attend to patients who are under watch for possible coronavirus infection.
Finally, those who will be cleared after the second screening, meaning those who do not exhibit any symptoms, will be brought to the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac for the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
Vicente Zaldivar, station chief of the Bureau of Quarantine in Clark, said the medical team and other personnel who assisted in the repatriation will be screened as well. All members of the repatriation team and the flight crew will also be quarantined for 14 days.
LOOK: PH repatriation team distributes relief goods to Filipinos in Wuhan
There are about 300 Filipinos working in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located. At least 56 of them asked to be repatriated as the number of deaths and cases of nCoV continued rising.
The new coronavirus has killed 724 people, mostly in China, the world’s most populous country. It has also infected more than 34,400 people across 27 countries and territories, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering that tracks coronavirus cases across the world.
In the Philippines, there are now three cases of the nCoV, all of them are Chinese visitors. One of them, a 44-year-old Chinese man died of acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus at the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila on February 1. He is the first reported fatality outside China’s mainland.
LOOK: Pampanga LGUs offer vehicles to transport repatriated Filipinos from Wuhan, China. The seats are covered with plastic. There is also a barrier between the driver and passengers | @crissydimatulac pic.twitter.com/oeosa2zK1i
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) February 8, 2020
