DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said the public should anticipate new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases from the mercy flight that carried 102 Dabawenyos back to the city on Thursday, May 21.
Duterte-Carpio said the mercy flight organized by the Overseas Welfare Workers Administration (OWWA) will be coming from Metro Manila, which is a Covid-19 hotspot.
The mayor said among the 102 Dabawenyos, 31 were assisted by OWWA, five of them through the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina), and the remaining 66 were students.
The mayor said the city personally asked OWWA to cater more stranded passengers, which they allowed.
A similar mercy flight conducted on May 12 had three Covid-19 positive patients which were immediately sent to the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) after testing positive in the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for Sars-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.
“As expected naa gyud mag positive ana because gikan sila sa isa ka lugar nga daghan kaayog positive and dunay community transmission. So, expected na ninyo nga dunay mag positive ana nila (We have to expect the one or more will be positive since they are coming from an area that has a high number of Covid-19 cases),” the mayor said via 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
Meanwhile, all passengers underwent a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and physical examination.
In case a passenger will test positive in the RDT test, he or she will be referred at SPMC for a confirmatory test using the RT-PCR test.
Health officers will advise them if they need to have a swab test at SPMC, go to a city quarantine facility, or just undergo a 14-day mandatory home quarantine.
The mayor already clarified that all passengers coming from outside the region are still not deemed “negative” unless they will comply with the 14-day home quarantine with no symptoms related to Covid-19.