LEGAZPI CITY, Albay, Philippines — Health and local government authorities in Albay have decided to quarantine a tugboat and a barge loaded with coal from Indonesia due to arrive in the province on Tuesday after confirming that 11 of its 20 Filipino crew members were positive for COVID-19.
The crew went through mandatory swab tests when their vessels, M/V Tug Clyde and Barge Claudia, arrived from Indonesia in the port of Butuan City in the Caraga region at 12:30 a.m. on July 14.
However, the vessels were allowed to leave port on Saturday and it was only after they were at sea bound for Albay when the results came out.
Officials here are now asking the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to investigate the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Philippine Ports Authority in Butuan and Caraga region for allowing the tugboat and barge to sail to Albay without waiting for the crew members’ test results.
Lawyer Anthony Nuyda, director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government in Bicol and head of the regional IATF, said the local pandemic task force initially decided to allow the vessels to dock at the private port in Barangay Lidong in Sto. Domingo town.
But following a virtual meeting on Monday with Mayors Noel Rosal of Legazpi and Joseling Aguas Jr. of Sto. Domingo, and the representatives from the Bureau of Quarantine and the regional Department of Health, the regional IATF decided that the vessels and its crew would stay at sea off the coast of Albay and would be quarantined for 14 days, Nuyda said.
Delta variant ‘suspects’
He said the vessel would remain on “anchorage quarantine” within the prescribed period and all its crew would have to undergo another swab test after seven days while on quarantine.
Health authorities here decided that since the vessel and its crew came from Indonesia, one of the countries where the COVID-19 Delta variant is prevalent, all crew members would further be tested and be considered as “suspects” for the more contagious variant until the whole-genomic sequencing procedure result is released, Nuyda said.
The 258-ton barge was carrying coal intended for a cement factory in Albay. All the crew members are residents of Camarines Sur province, the task force learned.
The vessels’ owner, Nathaniel Uy, a resident of Milaor town in Camarines Sur, has coordinated with local officials and maritime law enforcers so the crew members would comply with all health protocols upon arrival on Tuesday, Nuyda said.
Nuyda said Uy was also directed to work closely with the PCG in Albay to fast-track the unloading of the coal cargo, as it is highly combustible.
He said an incident management team—composed of health, transportation, civil defense, local government representatives and the owner of the vessels—was created to manage and supervise the unloading of the coal.