GENERAL SANTOS CITY – At least 681 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) from Region 12 (Soccsksargen) who were stranded in Metro Manila following the coronavirus disease quarantine have returned home as of Thursday.
Marilou Sumalinog, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) 12 director said, the OFWs were assisted by the government’s “Hatid Probinsya” program.
Sumalinog said 539 of them were flown home through “sweeper” flights and 142 via passenger’s vessels.
At least five special Air Asia flights from Manila arrived in the past three days at the city international airport.
The returning OFWs were fetched by their respective local government units (LGUs) and subjected to 14-day mandatory quarantine based on protocol.
In this city, some 200 workers are undergoing quarantine in various hotels and pension houses that were designated by the local government as isolation facilities.
Some of the workers underwent rapid diagnostic tests for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) upon arrival in their respective localities.
“Our health workers were closely monitoring the status of our quarantined OFWs,” she told reporters.
Sumalinog said they expect more stranded OFWs to arrive in the coming days, mainly through the “sweeper” flights arranged by the agency in coordination with the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of Transportation.
Other LGUs have also arranged special flights to fly home other returning OFWs and locally stranded individuals.
At least two flights from Manila and Cebu were scheduled this weekend for stranded residents of South Cotabato province. (PNA)
