Caballo Island will no longer be used as quarantine site, Lorenzana says

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has said the Caballo Island is no longer considered as a quarantine site for people under observation for the 2019 novel coronavirus.

In a message to GMA News Online on Tuesday night, Lorenzana said the area is “not easily accessible by car.”

At present, Lorenzana said only the drug rehabilitation facility in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija is being eyed as possible quarantine area.

President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier threatened to expropriate the drug rehabilitation center inside Fort Magsaysay for the purpose of providing quarantine facilities amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Caballo Island is located at the entrance of the Manila Bay while Fort Magsaysay is in Nueva Ecija.

Duterte has ordered the Department of Health to prepare quarantine areas amid the nCoV threat.

Latest DOH record showed that the Philippines had two confirmed cases of the disease, one of whom died over the weekend. Both Chinese tourists, the two were confined at the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila City. —KBK, GMA News