OFWs found returning from Liberia quarantined

CEBU CITY—Two overseas Filipino workers from West Africa will have to spend Christmas and New Year in a government facility in Cebu and not with their families as they had wanted.

The OFWs, a 25-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man, have been placed under 21-day mandatory quarantine since they arrived from Liberia, one of the countries hit by Ebola, on Dec. 16.

The two OFWs would be released in the first week of January after the end of the quarantine period, said Dr. Dino Caing of the Department of Health in Central Visayas.

Both are accountants but worked in different companies although their offices were located in the same building but far from Monrovia, the Liberian capital which was hit by an Ebola epidemic, said Caing.

He added that the OFWs had not gone to areas with Ebola cases as they were prevented from doing so by their employers.

Asymptomatic

“They were asymptomatic (no symptoms) but we made them understand that they had to undergo mandatory quarantine to make sure Ebola does not enter the country and endanger the lives of Filipinos,” Caing said in an interview on Friday.

Since the OFWs did not display any symptoms, like fever, their families were allowed to visit them, according to Caing. But their relatives were required to keep a distance of at least a meter from the OFWs and wear protective masks during the visit, he said.

The two OFWs were provided food and laundry services and have access to cable TV and Wi-Fi connection.

Caing said Central Visayas health authorities had to be extra vigilant because some OFWs, especially those who came from Asian countries, would usually not disclose that their port of origin is West Africa where Ebola had killed at least 4,500 people.

Such was the case of the two OFWs, Caing said.

From Liberia, the two went to Casa Blanca in Morocco before proceeding to Dubai in United Arab Emirates where they took a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where they took a flight to Cebu.

Vigilance

“If BOQ (Bureau of Quarantine) officials were not vigilant enough to check the passport and the travel history, apart from the disclosed Kuala Lumpur trip, the two could be an addition to the number of OFWs from West Africa who escaped mandatory quarantine,” Caing said.

The wire news service Reuters, quoting the World Health Organization in a recent report, said the death toll from the Ebola epidemic has risen to 6,915 as of Dec. 14.

The Philippines has so far remained Ebola-free and the government is implementing a policy of quarantine that started with a group of Filipino United Nations peacekeepers.

Ebola had reached the United States and Spain but was prevented from spreading in those countries.

Janet Garin, health undersecretary, and several top armed forces officials had been criticized recently for paying a visit to the UN peacekeepers without protective gear against Ebola.