THE Davao City Government has reimposed the mandatory 14-day facility-based quarantine for repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) following the emergence of the newly detected Omicron variant of the Covid-19 in several places abroad.
Covid-19 Task Force Spokesperson Dr. Michelle Schlosser bared this in a radio interview on Friday, December 10.
Schlosser said the City Government, through the Airport Monitoring Team led by City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) head Generose Tecson, is strictly monitoring the entry of air passengers, particularly those coming from outside the country.
She added that arriving repatriated OFWs will be transported to hotels, which are designated as quarantine facilities upon their arrival at the airport.
"Before sila i-release para makumpleto nila ilang quarantine sa ilang panimalay (we will release them to complete their quarantine at their residence), we make sure na negative ilang RT-PCR [reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction] test," Schlosser said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
(Before we release them to complete their quarantine at their residence, we will make sure that their RT-PCR test negative.)
The City Government previously shortened the quarantine period to five days when the number of cases in the city and most parts of the country dropped.
However, the reimposition of the mandatory 14-day facility-based quarantine is aimed at controlling the possible entry of Omicron, which was first detected in South Africa.
Meanwhile, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio already said the City Government is not keen on reimposing the “test before travel” policy for domestic air passengers.
Duterte-Carpio said the CCity will only reimpose it at the Francisco Bangoy International Airport (Davao International Airport) once it will be stipulated in the guidelines provided by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).
The City Government also discontinued the mandatory RT-PCR test results to all travelers entering the city effective November 16, 2021.
This came after the city was downgraded to Alert Level 2 brought about by the continuing downtrend of Covid-19 cases.
The IATF has placed South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Mozambique along with Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and Italy under the Red List effective November 28, 2021, until December 15, 2021. This means that those under the Red List countries/jurisdictions/territories shall not be allowed entry to any port in the Philippines.
Returning Filipinos through government-initiated or non-government-initiated repatriation and Bayanihan Flights may be allowed entry subject to the prevailing entry, testing, and quarantine protocols for Red List countries.
Additionally, all inbound international travelers under the "Yellow List" will have to undergo testing and quarantine protocols in all ports of entry in the country, while testing and quarantine protocols for those coming from "Green" countries have been temporarily suspended until December 15, 2021.
Meanwhile, Duterte-Carpio said the test, trace and treat strategies will still be the same response of the city.
She said the city is also ramping up the inoculation of the booster shots and the preparation for the establishment of the oxygen plant in anticipation of a possible surge in Covid-19 cases.