SOME 29 passengers who arrived at the Bacolod-Silay Airport in Silay City on Thursday, January 6, 2022, tested positive for the Covid-19 virus based on the rapid antigen tests, a provincial government official confirmed.

Provincial Administrator Lawyer Rayfrando Diaz II said the passengers were part of five separate flights bound for Negros Occidental.

Diaz said the first four passengers who tested positive of Covid-19 were part of the first flight, six on the second, eight on the third, four on the fourth, and the remaining seven are passengers of the last flight.

Those who tested positive for the virus were isolated and brought to the Silay City Quarantine Facility, where they will undergo 14 days quarantine in compliance with the health protocols of the province, he said.

The provincial administrator added that Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson has yet to heed to the request of Dr. Ernell Tumimbang for a confirmatory reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.

The official said Negros Occidental’s antigen test has an accuracy of 94 percent.

Meanwhile, Diaz said that Capitol personnel have already been deployed at the airport and seaports of the province, including those who are in-charge of taking rapid antigen tests for all inbound passengers.

Next week, the provincial government will require all inbound passengers to take RT-PCR tests from their areas of origin before they board their planes and boats going to Negros Occidental.

Diaz said some passengers did not take well to their positive test results but others were happy that before they came home to their families "they were warned that they are carriers of the virus."

"All these things that we are doing is to protect them and their families. We will take care of them at our quarantine facilities because we have doctors and nurses there," he said.