Policemen ordered to find 174 plane passengers unaccounted for

Passengers walk past a thermal scanner at the medical quarantine area at the arrival section of Manila’s International Airport in Paranaque, south of Manila, Philippines on Wednesday, April 16, 2014. Philippine officials said a Filipino health worker who tested positive for the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus has arrived home from the United Arab Emirates. It’s the first known case of the deadly virus in the country. AP

MANILA, Philippines–Besides hunting down criminals, members of the Philippine National Police have a new mission: Locate  returning Filipinos from the Middle East who may have contracted a deadly respiratory virus.

The PNP on Monday ordered its units nationwide to track down more than 400 passengers of Etihad Airlines Flight No. EY 0424 from Abu Dhabi who may have been exposed to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV).

Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP public information office chief, said police units were also instructed to help disseminate the advisories of the Department of Health (DOH) regarding the virus.

Sindac said passengers who would refuse to heed the health department’s order for them to undergo medical examinations may be bodily taken to the hospital.

“We will assist the DOH through our police powers and by employing persuasive means to compel them to cooperate for their own good,” Sindac said at a news briefing at Camp Crame.

Asked if the passengers would be arrested, he said: “They will not be handcuffed. Maybe as a last resort, we will have to bodily carry them.”

“But we will exhaust all the possible means to convince them (to go to the hospital) so that we don’t have to do that,” he said.

Quarantine law

Director Ricardo Marquez, chief of the PNP Directorate for Operations, said police personnel assisting the DOH “should employ reasonable force” as stated in Republic Act No. 9271, or the Quarantine Law of 2004.

Sindac said policemen who would be on the lookout for the passengers were instructed to follow the protocols that the PNP had implemented when the government monitored the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus several years ago.

“We will follow the same [policies] we implement during typhoons,” he added.

He said PNP personnel were also advised to wear personal protective gear, such as rubber gloves and face masks.

“They were also advised to avoid close contact with persons suspected to be infected with the virus and wash their hands thoroughly after each operation,” he said.

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