OFWs urged: Follow cough etiquette

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has asked Filipino workers in Riyadh to adhere to the advisory of the Saudi Ministry of Health on the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

POEA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac made this call on his Twitter account @HansLeoCacdac, where he posted a MERS-CoV poster released by the Saudi government.

“To our dear Saudi OFWs: Cough and sneeze etiquette from the Saudi Ministry of Health website,” he said.

Earlier, Cacdac issued a medical alert for Filipino workers on MERS-CoV which has killed five Filipinos – four in Riyadh and one in Abu Dhabi – since late 2013. All of them were nurses who contracted the virus from their patients.

Cacdac has also urged all licensed recruitment agencies to “have their returning or vacationing workers from Middle East to undergo MERS-CoV test prior to their departure for the Philippines through the facilitation of their respective employers” and this should be “at no cost to the workers.”