Lanao sur officials trace ‘second wave’ of virus cases to returnees

MARAWI CITY—Citing the increased number of COVID-19 cases from returning residents, Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. has appealed to the national government to suspend its “Hatid Probinsya” program which sends back to their provinces individuals stranded by the lockdown in Metro Manila.

Adiong said the national government must first subject returning residents to the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test before allowing them to go home.

“If the results are negative, then we shall accept them. The main purpose of this appeal is to make sure that our province is safe and secure from the threat of COVID-19,” he added.

As of Saturday, Adiong said the number of those infected by the severe respiratory disease in the province has quadrupled from the figure of almost two months ago.

From only nine cases in mid-April, the number has risen to 39 as of June 13. The new cases are all returnees from Manila.

Of the 39, six have recovered, three have died, and 30 are active cases.

Bangsamoro parliament member Zia Alonto-Adiong, spokesperson of the Lanao del Sur task force against COVID-19, told the Inquirer that the province “has successfully flattened the curve, until the return of stranded individuals and overseas Filipino workers from Manila.”

He added: “Because of the spike in COVID-19 cases with the stream of returnees, the province is experiencing a second wave of infections.”

The new cases “are not due to local transmission [but] are imported,” Alonto-Adiong said.

The Maranao returnees started arriving in the province last week, mostly via sweeper flights through the Laguindingan airport in Misamis Oriental.

As of June 9, 982 returnees have arrived in the province, said Sheila Ganda, who is in charge of managing the arrivals. On June 11, 509 more arrived in the province.

All returnees were picked up at the airport and brought to isolation facilities for rapid diagnostic testing and medical assessment. They were released only after a repeat test among those reactive to the test yielded a negative result.

Ganda said the number of cases had already put a strain on the provincial quarantine facility that was converted from a housing project, with three to five returnees sharing a house.

Only 45 of 100 houses are ready for occupancy, she added.

Aside from rapid diagnostic and PCR test kits that cost P1,000 and P4,000 each respectively, Ganda said the provincial government was also spending millions for charter flights from Manila and renting some 30 vans daily to fetch the returning residents.

They are provided with food upon arrival and during their stay at the quarantine facility, Ganda added.

The flood of returnees has led to the fast-tracking of work on the bio-molecular testing lab at the Amai Pakpak Medical Center funded by the provincial government, the Marawi city government, and the Department of Health.

Hospital chief Dr. Shalimar Raki-in said the laboratory was targeted to be operational by August this year. —With a report from Richel Umel