ILIGAN CITY —– Two of the eight seafarers who arrived at Iligan port early morning on Wednesday (April 29) were tested positive of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies in a rapid test before they were brought by the medical teams to a quarantine facility in their respective places.
Of the two, one is a resident of Wao, Lanao del Sur while the other is from Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte. The medical team from Lanao del Sur Integrated Provincial Health Office conducted the test of the worker who hails from Wao. The remaining six workers also come from Lanao del Sur and Iligan City.
The eight overseas sea-based Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), who arrived from Manila via St. Michael The Archangel of 20GO Shipping, are part of the more than 300 overseas workers repatriated by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Lyndon Calica, commander of the Incident Command Center of Lanao del Norte Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on COVID-19 in a phone interview said the OFWs underwent swab test for the confirmatory Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test.
“We have the same sentiments with MisOcc (Misamis Occidental) that the people in Manila should have properly facilitated the certification of the OFWs and they should (have) announced it ahead, they should coordinate with the LGUs (local government units) concerned,” Calica said.
The seafarer, whose last country of assignment is Italy, “is okay” and is strictly monitored by the Health Emergency Response Team (HEART) at the provincial isolation center while the three others were quarantined at their respective LGUs according to Calica.
“He is asymptomatic,” Calica said.
The workers who tested positive were not brought to the provincial quarantine facility in Marawi City, instead, to the isolation facility prepared by the LGU in Wao according to Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesperson of LDS IATF.
“They were subjected to rapid test and one of them turned out positive of COVID-19. They are now isolated at the Wao quarantine facility under strict monitoring. They are asymptomatic,” Adiong said.
Hours before they arrived at Iligan port, the five seafarers who were going home in Ozamis City and some parts of Misamis Occidental, disembarked at Ozamiz port from the same vessel.
One of them also tested positive in a rapid test conducted before they were brought to different isolation areas and now awaiting the result of the confirmatory RT-PCR test.
Three of them are now awaiting confirmatory test results.-Divina M. Suson
