FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has directed the Philippine consulate in Shanghai, China to immediately start processing Filipinos in Hubei province who wish to be repatriated.
In a Twitter post Tuesday night, January 28, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Brigido Dulay said two private charter airlines were on standby to fly to Hubei to bring the Filipinos home once they are cleared by Chinese authorities.
Between 30 and 50 Filipinos in Hubei have expressed their desire to be repatriated as the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) continued to spread. As of Tuesday, this highly contagious coronavirus strain has killed 106 people and infected thousands of others.
Wuhan City, the epicenter of the 2019-nCoV outbreak, is in Hubei in central China.
Returning Filipinos from China will be placed under quarantine for 14 days, the estimated incubation period of the pneumonia-causing disease.
Locsin, in a separate tweet, asked Dulay whether the quarantine facilities were ready. Dulay said the quarantine plan is based on the Department of Health (DOH) protocol.