Over 600 OFWs sent home after only 3 days in Clark

CLARK FREEPORT—More than 600 repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were sent home on Tuesday after staying at holding facilities here and in Tarlac City for at least three days.Vivencio Dizon, deputy chief implementer of the government’s COVID-19 response, said the OFWs were swabbed upon arrival at Clark International Airport on June 5 and June 6. They were given free accommodation in hotels within Clark and in New Clark City Athletes’ Village in Tarlac City as they awaited the results of their real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests, Dizon said.The test results came out “a little over 24 hours,” prompting the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases to allow the OFWs to return home, he said.The OFWs bound for destinations within Luzon were transported by buses arranged by the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration and their local governments.

Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said: “I hope this speedy process will serve as the standard for other returning OFWs. We want to ensure that we streamline the process [of keeping our OFWs in a holding or quarantine facility] like what we did here in Clark.” —REPORTS FROM TONETTE OREJAS AND MARIA ADELAIDA CALAYAG INQ