MANILA, Philippines — The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) detailed yesterday that more than 40,000 all the more abroad Filipino laborers (OFWs) displaced by the lockdown abroad due to the coronavirus infection 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are expected to get back.
“More than 40,000 OFWs are to be repatriated. That might even be a conservative estimate because we have yet to include in the count medium- to long-term economic effect of the pandemic,” OWWA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said in a radio interview.
Cacdac said that since the episode of COVID-19 around 45,000 sailors and 40,000 land-based laborers were influenced by the pandemic and have been repatriated.
Of those repatriated, Cacdac said around 7,000 are as yet remaining in isolate offices and holding on to be tried before they could at long last be permitted to join their families.
“In the mass testing being conducted among OFWs, we are prioritizing those who have already completed their 14-day quarantine. Those who tested negative would be immediately sent home so we can decongest our quarantine facilities,” Cacdac said.
He said they expect the testing for OFWs to be finished for this present week.
“We really need to empty our quarantine facilities to accommodate those who are coming home,” he noted.
As indicated by Cacdac, there are sailors who are undergoing quarantine in their host ships. The sailors will likewise be tried following 14 days and will briefly remain in nearby inns before returning home.
Cacdac said the legislature is utilizing the best quality level testing pack, in this way neighborhood government units ought not stress and should acknowledge the OFWs when they come back to their home regions subsequent to testing negative for the infection.
The suspension of inbound flights has caused delay in the repatriation, however, Cacdac said the quantity of influenced laborers is as of now declining.
Neighborhood enlistment industry authorities recently anticipated around 100,000 OFWs could be uprooted due to COVID.
Five more voyage ships are cruising to Manila Bay this week, bringing home in excess of 4,000 increasingly Filipino seafarers.?Migration and enrollment master Manny Geslani said the journey ships Holland America Eurodam, Carnival Panorama and Royal Princess left the US west coast a month prior with 3,000 Filipino crewmembers, while two different boats Celebrity Solstice and Ovation of the Seas set sail from Singapore and India to bring home more than 1,000 OFWs.?
There are as yet 10 journey delivers in Manila Bay with in excess of 4,000 sailors despite everything experiencing 14-day quarantine as requested by the Bureau of Quarantine and being observed by the Philippine Coast Guard.? The Filipino sailors are doing self quarantine inside the traveler lodges while the Department of Health and Bureau of Quarantine review each boat to check the temperature of every sailor.
The COVID-19 tests are completed on the traveler ships and the individuals who test negative are permitted to land by the Coast Guard when the boat docks at the Port of Manila.
National Task Force on COVID-19 reaction boss implementer Carlito Galvez, Jr. said yesterday that by Friday the restriction on approaching flights moving OFWs from different outside nations would be lifted.
“We will start accepting inbound passengers from abroad this coming Friday. But we will limit them to 400 to 500 (OFWs) to make it manageable,” Galvez said.
Galvez said the administration chose to briefly stop inbound worldwide trips to decongest the quarantine offices obliging a large number of OFWs that have shown up from abroad.
“At present, we have more or less 23,480 OFWs quarantined in Metro Manila and in nearby Batangas. And it is our recommendation that was approved by the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) for us to have temporary restrictions. It is only for the inbound OFWs or incoming OFWs in our national airport. It was intended to regulate the entry of OFWs,” Galvez said.
Presidential yacht BRP Ang Pangulo, as of late changed over into a floating quarantine office and as of now docked at Pier 13 of Manila's South Harbor, is currently lodging 16 suspected COVID-19 people.
Maritime Public Affairs Office boss Lt. Officer Maria Christina Roxas said the speculated cases are for the most part military frontliners and they are quarantined at the presidential yacht while hanging tight for the aftereffects of their RT-PCR test at the AFP General Hospital in Quezon City.
The Ang Pangulo has a clinical staff of one specialist, an attendant, an emergency clinic associate and three clinical colleagues
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