CEBU CITY—It’s business as usual at the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) although fear over the deadly novel coronavirus (nCoV) continued to linger.
At a press conference on Thursday (Feb. 6), MCIA Authority General Manager Steve Dicdican said airport operations remained normal although measures had been put in place to prevent the virus from infecting anyone at the airport or carriers slipping past through checks.
Dicdican said there had been “no disruption for regular operations.”
He said MCIAA and airport operations contractor GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corporation have implemented measures to deal with nCoV without disrupting airport functions.
“We have sufficient facility to manage quarantine for 14 days,” said Dicdican of the possibility of Filipinos returning from travels in infected countries and needing isolation.
Since Feb. 2 until today, MCIAA had recorded close to 100 passengers returing to Cebu from parts of China, including Hong Kong and Macau.
Of the 100 passengers, 10 went on home quarantine.
If the nCoV cases escalated, Dicdican said the airport has dedicated areas for segregation.
He said he was aware that there are at least 200,000 Filipino workers in China. “Even if 50 percent will decide to return to Cebu, it will still be a challenge for us to quarantine them,” said Dicdican.
He said the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in Central Visayas had already designated at least four evacuation centers to serve as quarantine areas for Filipinos coming home from China and other infected countries.
The quarantine areas, however, would be put to use only “if the situation escalates,” said Dicdican. “We are both preparing for the worst,” he said.
The first three Chinese nationals who tested positive for nCov in the Philippines all arrived in the country via the MCIA.
Andrew Harrison, GMR Megawide Cebu chief executive advisor, said measures had been added as precaution to prevent the virus from spreading.
Some of these were providing surgical masks to all employees and placing hand sanitizers “all over the airport,” Harrison said.
Harrison said all airport workers remained free of nCoV if symptoms were to be used as basis.
“We don’t want to instill panic. Instead, we have put in place local protocol,” he said.