With the shortage of quarantine facilities in the country, there’s a possibility that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) might be included in the restriction on countries with confirmed cases of the new COVID-19 strain.
In a virtual briefing held on Monday, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III explained that since the new strain is highly infectious, the government is currently considering extending the travel restrictions to OFWs as well.
Bello also raised the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA)’s concern about the lack of quarantine facilities for OFWs in the country. “I just had a meeting with OWWA administrator Hans Cacdac and he is apprehensive that we’ve run out of quarantine (space) because we are repatriating at least 1,000 to a maximum of 3,500 OFWs a day.”
Another factor that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) might consider is the possibility of arriving OFWs being infected with the new strain. “So far, we have yet to receive a report of an OFW being contaminated with the COVID variant,” Bello said.
OFWs are currently exempted from the restriction on travelers coming from countries with the new coronavirus strain. They are, however, required to undergo a 14-day quarantine.
