Task force places vessel, crew on quarantine

THE local Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has placed a passenger-cargo vessel and its 10-man crew under mandatory quarantine effective Friday, May 29, in Zamboanga City, an official announced.

Lieutenant Commander Jesse Guiniling, Zamboanga Coast Guard Station commander, said placed under mandatory quarantine on recommendations of the Task Force Covid-19 water cluster is the locally-owned M/V Ciara Joie V, which plies the Zamboanga-Basilan route via Lamitan City.

Guiniling said the move came after the first Covid-19 patient of Basilan province boarded the vessel on May 24 together with two medical frontliners to undergo dialysis procedure at the Zamboanga City Medical Center (ZCMC).

The first Covid-19 case in Basilan recorded Wednesday, May 27, is a 47-year-old male from the municipality of Tipo-Tipo, who regularly travels to this city to undergo dialysis at ZCMC.

Guiniling said trips to Basilan have been suspended effective Friday, May 29, since M/V Ciara Joie V and its crew have been placed under quarantine.

He said the shipping company informed them that the vessel will be replaced by another ship, MV Ciara Joie VI, to ensure continues flow of cargoes from and to Basilan province.

The official said the trip from and to Basilan will resume once the replacement vessel is already available.

He said the trips of vessels to the Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi (BaSulTa) areas continue despite the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine in March, but for cargoes only and in accordance to health protocols.

Basilan has allowed the travel of frontliners from and to the province amid the quarantine in some of the voyage, Guiniling added. (SunStar Zamboanga)

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