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Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Sick Tomas detained for quarantine at HK airport
Down with fever and cough, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña had to face the “embarrassment” of being held for quarantine at the airport in Hong Kong during his vacation there last week.
But because he is city mayor of Cebu, Osmeña was allowed to go shortly after his temperature was taken at the airport.
The mayor said he was lucky that the resident manager of Cebu Pacific in Hong Kong was at the airport when he arrived and immediately vouched for him.
“I was put under the embarrassing situation where I was quarantined in Hong Kong because when I arrived there, I already had fever and they picked me out of the crowd and they stuck this thermometer in my ear. Then they said, ‘You have fever,’ and I said, ‘Oh no, there you go!’,” Osmeña said, recounting his experience to reporters yesterday.
The mayor, his wife Margot and their son Miguel left for Hong Kong last Sunday afternoon to celebrate their birthdays there.
Worried that the mayor might be infected with the bird flu virus, the airport authorities in Hong Kong pulled him out of the crowd when his face appeared red instead of green in the infrared cameras, which apparently detected his fever.
“Fortunately, Cebu Pacific had their resident manager there to greet me and was trying to explain that you know, I enjoy a special status and I’m not some guy who came from a poultry farm who might have bird flu. Because that’s what they’re very careful about,” Osmeña said.
Osmeña was forced to cancel some appointments since he arrived last Thursday because he was still feeling sick. He still suffered from cough yesterday.
The mayor and his wife celebrated their birthdays in Hong Kong and Macau, and their wedding anniversary in Cebu last Friday. (LCR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 1, 2006 issue)
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