Pandemic task force to review Cebu’s testing rules for OFWs, residents returning from abroad

CEBU CITY—The national pandemic task force has committed to visit Cebu on June 28 to evaluate the province’s policy of testing overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and residents returning from abroad.

Health Undersecretary Alethea de Guzman said experts of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging and Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) are “deeply concerned” about the province’s quarantine protocols, and not about its testing and swabbing policies.

“Our secretary (wants) to see first hand the best practices (in Cebu),” said De Guzman during the committee on overseas workers affairs’ hearing at the House of Representatives on Thursday, June 17.

She said the IATF does not want other provinces in the country to be reverted to the strictest form of community quarantine due to “variants of concerns” which could be transmitted by returning OFWs.

Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7), responded, saying having variants of concern is but natural.

“That’s the way of the virus. Let us not put in all of these stringent and suffocating rules because we are afraid to think outside of the box,” she said.

Aside from Loreche, the virtual congressional hearing also included Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.

Loreche said they already received the IATF’s “critique” on Cebu’s response towards COVID-19 as ordered by President Duterte.

“At the end of the day, the battle is not a battle of data anymore. It’s not the battle of who’s the best or who’s not. It’s really putting down what’s good for public health because you cannot be making a policy based on a model or based on fear because we really have to move forward,” she said in an interview.

“If coronavirus has evolved into its various variants of concern, we should also evolve the way we think on this pandemic,” she added.

An executive order earlier issued by Garcia and an ordinance of the provincial board requires OFWs and residents returning from abroad to undergo a swab test upon arrival at the Mactan Cebu International Airport and go on hotel quarantine period of only two to three days.

On the other hand, the current national policy mandates a 10-day quarantine and swabbing on the seventh day from arrival.

The provincial board, on June 11, amended its ordinance and ordered those from abroad to undergo another test on the seventh day after their arrival and while they are on “facility or home” quarantine.