Malacañang said the first batch of Filipinos who left China amid the 2019 new coronavirus outbreak will arrive on Saturday and will be transported to Fort Magsaysay for quarantine, Wednesday.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the Filipinos who decided to be repatriated would arrive at Clark Airport in Pampanga on Saturday, February 8. They will be transported directly to the drug rehabilitation facility inside Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija to undergo a 14-day quarantine.
Panelo said President Rodrigo Duterte instructed Health Secretary Francisco Duque III during the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday to go to Fort Magsaysay “to properly address the people affected in detail.”
The novel coronavirus (nCoV), which first emerged from Wuhan City, China, already killed 490 and infected over 20,000 people as of today, February 5, 2020.
Department of Foreign Affairs said there are around 300 Filipinos in Hubei province, and 150 of them live in Wuhan. The city is currently under lockdown to prevent the spread of the deadly new strain of coronavirus.
Authorities assured the public that existing travel restrictions would not affect the repatriation process.
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Fort Magsaysay to quarantine first batch of repatriated Filipinos from China
Duque also requested the help of various government agencies including the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Labor and Employment, the Department of Justice, as well as the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to prevent the nCoV from spreading in the country.
President Duterte also said barangay captains, “should act in accordance with the tempo dictated by the national government or face charges for non-feasance,” said Panelo.
Duterte instructed the Presidential Communications Operations Office to release advisories and guidelines laid out by health experts “with an assurance that if the public will just observe the same, then they should be safe from being infected by the virus,” Panelo said.