A TOTAL of 120 returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) arrived in Davao City from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Monday evening, August 16.
The ROFs arrived around 8:27 p.m. Monday at the Francisco Bangoy International Airport (Davao International Airport).
In a press release, City Tourism Operations Office and Airport Monitoring head Generose Tecson said out of the passengers, 94 were overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and 26 were non-OFWs and their dependents.
Tecson said 24 ROFs were fully vaccinated, while 17 received their first dose of either Sinovac's CoronaVac or Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines.
The official said passengers will be swabbed on the seventh day from their arrival and will undergo quarantine until August 29. She added they will be allowed to go home on August 30.
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) provided the quarantine facilities, swabbing and onward journey of the OFWs.
As part of arrival protocols, the passengers were swabbed 48 hours before the flight and present negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results under City Ordinance 0477-21, Series of 2021 or the Mandatory Testing Prior to Entry into the Davao City via the Davao International Airport.
As part of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), the OFWs and ROFs were required to undergo a 14-day quarantine in Davao City before proceeding to their final destinations.
In the quarantine facility, the returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) are situated on the higher floors. For instance, if the designated hotel has ten floors, only the seventh to the tenth floor shall be occupied by the ROFs.
Tecson also said the city continues to require the mandatory RT-PCR test for travelers going to the city even for fully-vaccinated Filipinos. The test results must be taken within 24 to 72 hours before scheduled arrival.
Amid the recently detected Covid-19 Delta cases in the city, which is now at six, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said the city will not be suspending accepting repatriated flights.
Duterte-Carpio previously allayed fears of a potential surge of Covid-19 cases in the city following the recent acceptance of repatriation flights outside the country.
She assured the public that repatriated passengers will undergo a “bubble” arrival process and strict health protocols will be applied for passengers.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, 13 ROFs who arrived in the city tested positive for the Covid-19 virus. Three of the cases were passengers from Dhaka, Bangladesh, and 10 were from Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The individuals who tested positive were immediately transferred to the tent city at the Davao International Airport for additional 14-day mandatory isolation. Those who tested negative need to undergo another seven days of quarantine.