Returning OFWs required to undergo COVID-19 rapid testing — IATF

Returning overseas Filipino workers will now undergo rapid testing for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID)-19) as the government tries to prevent imported cases.

“All arriving overseas Filipino workers, whether land-based or sea-based, shall be required to undergo a mandatory 14-day facility-based quarantine, and shall be subject to rapid antibody testing for COVID-19,” Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said in a televised briefing on Tuesday.

Sea-based OFWs onboard cruise ships who have been issued with a clean bill of health by the Bureau of Quarantine, upon presentation of a certificate of completion of 14-day quarantine issued at the point of origin immediately before departure, will also be subjected to a rapid antibody testing.

Nograles said the latest measure was approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on Monday.

Government data showed the Department of Foreign Affairs has already facilitated the repatriation of 16,682 OFWs, 13,213 of them are seafarers and 3,469 are land-based.

The DFA also reported that 990 overseas Filipinos have contracted the disease, including 143 deaths and 263 recoveries. — RSJ, GMA News