CLARK, PAMPANGA –– Government teams are flying to Wuhan City in China on Saturday night (Feb. 8) to fetch 45 Filipino workers, who will be quarantined for 14 days on Sunday (Feb. 9) at the Athletes Village of the New Clark City in Tarlac province.
Rowell Casaclang and Abdul Rahman Pacasum of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and Richard delos Santos from the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs, are members of the Health Emergency Response Team (HERT), which is scheduled to fly from the Clark International Airport (CRK) once it receives clearance from Chinese authorities.
They will be accompanied by a 5-man medical team deployed by the Department of Health.
The HERT is “experienced in repatriation operations,” and had conducted a simulation exercise at CRK a day before the flight to fine-tune protocols for the workers once their plane lands, according to Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola, who handles the agency’s office on migrant workers’ affairs.
The HERT has a system for the orderly disembarkation and transfer of the repatriated workers to the Athlete’s Village at Capas town. The DFA personnel will help sort out the documentary requirements of each worker as soon as they land on Philippine soil, Arriola said.
A heavily tinted bus would ferry the worker, who would be classified as Persons Under Monitoring, according to Dr. Janet Lazatin, Tarlac Provincial Health Officer. A designated team of doctors will examine them every day.
The crew, who manned the flight, will also be subjected to the 14-day quarantine period./lzb