MANILA – A total of 30 Filipinos repatriated from Wuhan, China arrived in the country on Sunday, marking the first evacuation of Filipinos from the epicenter of the 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD).
The repatriates – 29 Filipino adults and one infant – along with 10-member government repatriation team were aboard chartered Royal Air flight that landed around 7 a.m. at the Haribon Hangar of the Philippine Air Force in Clark, Pampanga.
Upon their arrival, the Filipinos were transferred from the plane into their dedicated buses, and brought to the Athletes’ Village in New Clark City in Tarlac, which will be their home for the 14-day quarantine period, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
The repatriated Filipinos will be provided with food, hygiene kits, other necessities, and will be given access to cellphones, while a mental health team will assess the Filipinos’ mental wellness on the third day of quarantine.
Capas, Tarlac mayor Reynaldo Catacutan, meanwhile, said the town welcomes the Filipinos who returned from Wuhan after he initially urged government to consider another quarantine site for the repatriates.
“We in Capas, offer our home, our sympathy, and prayers for the health of our fellow Filipinos at sana po magkaroon na ng permanenteng solusyon para sa nCoV,” Catacutan said in a statement.
“We Filipinos, always help each other at wala pong makakapagpabago doon. Only wrong information can destroy a relationship as strong as what Filipinos have,” he added.
“We were blindsided. And we owed it to our people na mag-explain sa kanila pero wala kaming full information the very moment na lumabas po ito sa national news,” he further said. “Nagkaroon po ng spread of fear at fake news. Una dahil hindi po kami nainform, at hindi namin nai-relay sa mga tao.”
The Department of Health has so far monitored 267 patients suspected of carrying the new strain of coronavirus, of whom 230 were admitted to hospitals and 19 were discharged.
There were three confirmed cases of 2019 nCoV ARD in the country, all of them Chinese national from Wuhan, China. One of them died earlier this month at the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila./PN
