Shortening OFWs’ quarantine period to add more risk of COVID-19 infections -OCTA

Shortening the quarantine period of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will add more risk of COVID-19 infections, OCTA Research fellow Prof. Guido David said Thursday.

In an interview on Balitanghali, David said they acknowledge the struggles of the OFWs but the government cannot put the Philippines, especially the National Capital Region (NCR), at risk as the country is still recovering from the latest surge of infections.

“Hindi natin pwede ilagay ang lugar natin, ang NCR o ang PIlipinas, sa panganib. ‘Yung risk na ‘yan, this is real. Totoo ang sinasabi ng ibang experts na kahit mababa ang positivity rate sa mga OFWs, meron pa ring nagpa-positive… May isa lang na makalusot, kakalat na 'yan sa maraming tao,” David said.

(We cannot put the NCR or the Philippiness at risk. Even if the experts said that the positivity rate among OFWs is low, there are still some who are testing positive for the virus. There will be more infections if they will be allowed to go out of the quarantine facilities without finishing the 14-day period.)

He also explained that there are false negative results despite using the gold standard for testing— the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests.

He said RT-PCR tests are not 100 percent accurate.

“So 'pag nag-negative sila sa test at di nila tapusin ang quarantine period, posibleng makalat nila 'yon sa NCR and mahirapan tayo n'yan kasi nagre-recover tayo. Mamaya, may risk na naman tayo ng outbreak. ‘Di tayo makakarecover,” he added.

(If they yielded false negative results and they did not finish the quarantine period, it is possible that they can transmit the virus in NCR and we will have a hard time as we are still recovering. There is a risk of an outbreak.)

On Wednesday night, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to immediately test OFWs and reduce the number of quarantine days in hotels or isolation facilities.

According to Bello, the testing positivity rate of returning overseas Filipinos in 2020 was 2.07% while it decreased to 1.5% in 2021.

In response, Duterte said he is not prepared to allow less stringent quarantine and testing protocols for arriving OFWs that could compromise the health of the people as the country continues to bear the brunt of COVID-19.—AOL, GMA News