Repatriated Filipinos from Wuhan to arrive Saturday

(file photo)
(file photo)

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is not likely to be waiting at the Clark International Airport when Filipinos repatriated from Wuhan City, epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak, are expected to arrive Saturday, February 8.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, in an interview with reporters Wednesday, February 5, said the President had wanted to be "with the people".

But Nograles said the President's management staff and security personnel might not allow him.

Asked whether the President will inspect the quarantine facility inside Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, Nograles said, "No, but the President, (what) he wants to do (is) that he wants to be with the people, but again it would be a diffrent thing with the PMS and PSG, they have their own protocol."

Nograles was referring to the Presidential Management Staff, which provides management and technical support to the Office of the President, and the Presidential Security Group, the personnel assigned to protect the President and his immediate family.

The repatriated Filipinos will be placed under quarantine at the Fort Magsaysay for 14 days, the incubation period for the 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD).

"The facility is ready to accommodate (people). It has 10,000 beds capacity. We are not saying that aabot tayo dun but at least na identify na natin yung quarantine facility," Nograles said.

"It has been cleared, (Health) Secretary (Francisco) Duque has sent a team there to make sure that everything is fixed, that everything is ready and I beleive that Secretary Duque will be doing himself an ocular (inspection) in Fort Magsaysay," he added.

The 2019-nCoV, which causes pneumonia, has killed nearly 500 people and infected nearly 25,000 people in China and several other countries since mid-December 2019.

The first fatality outside of China was recorded in the Philippines, when a 44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan died while undergoing treatment at the San Lazaro Hospital in Metro Manila.

The man's girlfriend, a 38-year-old Chinese woman, was earlier identified as the first 2019-nCoV case in the Philippines.

A third case, a 60-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, was confirmed by the Department of Health Wednesday.

All three individuals entered the Philippines via the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

While the first two cases, the couple at San Lazaro Hospital, stayed for a few hours only at the airport, the 60-year-old woman traveled from the airport to the Port of Cebu in Cebu City, where she took a ferry to Bohol on January 22.

She was admitted to a hospital in Bohol, but was cleared to go home on January 31, traveling again by ferry to Cebu City and then by land to the Mactan airport. (SunStar Philippines)

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