Largest batch of LSIs, OFWs arrive in Palawan

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY –– Seven individuals from the largest batch of returnees, who arrived here on Sunday, were reactive in the rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Richard Ligad, chief of the Puerto Princesa information office, in an announcement aired live on Facebook Monday, said the RDT-reactive returnees were placed under isolation pending confirmatory test.

“Three of them are locally stranded individuals and four are returning overseas Filipinos. They are scheduled for swab testing. They have already been isolated,” he said.

Ligad clarified an initial report of repatriates released by the City Information Office citing that only a total of 295 have arrived instead of the earlier reported 337.

A total of 526 individuals have arrived in the city out of the expected 2,006 since the government eased community quarantine restrictions.

Ninety-one Palawan residents stranded in Cebu also arrived at the Puerto Princesa International Airport on Monday.

Palawan Incident Management Team head Cruzalde Ablaña, through a press statement from Provincial Information Office, said the returnees were all non-reactive to RDT that they undertook upon arrival Monday.

Some 912 returnees residing in different municipalities in Palawan have arrived since late May. The provincial government was expecting more than 4,000 returnees.

Philippine Airlines is scheduled to fly in another batch of stranded individuals on June 17.

LZB