THIS much reached the newsroom, although the figures could shift anytime. There were 89 Filipino passengers from China and its special administrative regions who arrived in Cebu in two batches. Seventy-nine of them, who came on first batch, are under home quarantine. There were 10 passengers in the second batch, now also under quarantine—six of them Cebuanos and are at home, while four were brought to a designated quarantine shelter. While public stories initially exposed the specific quarantine areas, it may help that they are kept from hereon.
That much we gathered from Bureau of Quarantine (BoQ) 7 Chief Terrence Anthony Bermejo.
Some hours before the Filipino returnees from Hong Kong arrived, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia met in a closed door meeting representatives of the BoQ, Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA), Department of Health (DOH) 7, the Provincial Health Office, GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp., and the Philippine National Police (PNP), a report by SunStar Cebu’s Rona Joyce Fernandez said.
The meeting comes after President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive last Sunday to expand the temporary travel ban, regardless of passenger nationality, from China and its special administrative regions, namely, Hong Kong and Macau. The ban, though, excludes Filipino citizens and holders of Philippine-issued Permanent Resident Visas.
Coming out from that meeting was the agreement to put up protocols—covering quarantine procedures for Cebu residents to treatment and disinfection of baggage to briefing of family members.
However, the governor said, on the matter of home quarantine protocols, “we need to define how to secure them while they are in each of their homes, whether this be in the towns or cities.”
The inter-agency meeting with the governor boosts efforts to “operationalize the quarantine of the Filipino arrivals.”
We imagine that the agencies concerned are now working double time to set in place these protocols. Now that the travel ban has taken effect, with around 306 aircraft movements canceled so far, we commend government’s decision to make potential entry points of the Wuhan virus less porous. The quarantine efforts, though still leaving much to be desired pending more information, is more than welcome.
We hope government continues to be transparent in its efforts if only to allay the fears and anxieties of citizens who are simultaneously beset by all sorts of disruptions.