Cebu’s main gateway, MCIAA, declares state of emergency after travel ban on China

CEBU CITY—The Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) has declared a state of emergency following the travel ban imposed on China and its territories.

MCIAA General Manager Steve Dicdican said the declaration would allow airport authorities to invoke police powers and proceed with emergency procurement.

At a press conference on Monday (Feb. 3), Dicdican also said at least 121 foreign nationals from Hong Kong, Macau, and China had been denied entry into Cebu. They were flown back to their ports of origin.

The airlines that flew in the barred foreigners had also asked 79 Filipinos who were on the same flights to subject themselves to “home quarantine.”

After President Rodrigo Duterte announced a travel ban on China and its territories to prevent the spread of nCoV, the airport prepared isolation or holding areas for Filipinos and Philippine residents returning from these places.

Returning Filipinos or Philippine residents from China and areas covered by the travel ban would be segregated from other passengers and undergo immigration processes at the isolation lounge. Officials had also identified the Everley Hospital as an isolation or quarantine facility in Cebu.

Michael Lenane, GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. chief operations officer, said airport authorities had monitored airport employees who may have had contact with the 38-year-old Chinese woman and her boyfriend, who were the first confirmed nCoV patients in the Philippines.

The boyfriend had died, making him the first nCoV fatality outside China. The woman is still in hospital.

Lenane, however, said none of the employees had shown signs or symptoms of nCoV since Jan. 21, or the time that the Chinese woman and her boyfriend arrived at the airport. The virus is believed to have an incubation period of up to 14 days and some of the infected said to be asymptomatic, or showing no signs of the deadly virus.

Edited by TSB