IATF seeks protocols for management and surveillance of repatriated OFWs
MANILA, Philippines — The government task force on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has ordered agencies to come up with guidelines on returning Filipino migrant workers.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has been repatriating overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected 2.6 million people worldwide, more than 6,000 of them in the Philippines.
More than 16,000 OFWs have been repatriated, majority of them seafarers. Among those are hundreds working on cruise ships who have been waiting for weeks to go home and have had to contend with changing government guidelines.
"The national task force sub-task group for repatriation of overseas Filipino workers have been directed to come up with protocols for the management and surveillance of repatriated land-based and sea-based OFWs once they return to our country and after the mandated quarantine period," presidential spokesman Harry Roque said at a press briefing Thursday.
The government has been implementing precautionary measures for OFWs even before the pandemic task force issued the directive.
Returning migrant workers have been required to undergo rapid testing for COVID-19. Previously, OFWs were only required to isolate themselves for 14 days in a quarantine facility.
Nearly 1,000 Filipinos have abroad have caught the virus, with more than a hundred deaths.
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