MIAA: At least 38 active COVID-19 cases among employees

The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) on Thursday said there are at least 38 active COVID-19 cases among its employees.

In a statement, MIAA said that since March, there are 57 reported cases of COVID-19 positive employees —comprised of permanent employees and that of the agency’s service providers.

“Out of this figure, 19 have already recovered and some have already reported back to work,” it said.

On Wednesday, the airport authority conducted free rapid testing for its employees.

“On its first testing day, a total of 294 underwent rapid testing,” MIAA said.

“Out of this number, 283 tested negative while 11 tested positive,” it added.

The airport authority said a confirmatory RT-PCR or swab test was immediately done on the 11 who tested positive in the rapid test.

As a matter of protocol, the 11 employees were told to report to their respective Barangay Health Emergency Response Team (BHERT) and go on home quarantine while waiting for the results of their PCR tests.

“Another round of testing will be done this Saturday and twice or thrice a week for other employees within the next weeks,” MIAA said.

The agency said it aims to extend this service to its service providers which include janitorial services and contracted security companies.

On various dates, MIAA said it intends to cover a total of 6,462 organic and non-organic employees combined.

MIAA urged everyone to avail of this free testing especially those whose nature of work exposes them to greater risk of catching the virus. 

The testing activity was done at the check-in area of NAIA Terminal 4 which remains closed to date. 

NAIA Terminal 4 is the old domestic terminal. 

It was closed in March after government issued a ban on domestic air travel.   

The three other NAIA Terminals – NAIA Terminal 1, 2, and 3 – are open for flight operations.