Coronavirus: Returning OFWs required to undergo rapid testing – IATF

Aside from 14-day mandatory facility quarantine, returning Overseas Filipino workers will now undergo rapid testing for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID)-19) as the government tries to prevent imported cases.

“All arriving overseas Filipino workers, whether land-based or sea-based, shall be required to undergo a mandatory 14-day facility-based quarantine, and shall be subject to rapid antibody testing for COVID-19,” Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said in a televised briefing on Tuesday.

Sea-based OFWs onboard cruise ships who have been issued with a clean bill of health by the Bureau of Quarantine, upon presentation of a certificate of completion of 14-day quarantine issued at the point of origin immediately before departure, will also be subjected to a rapid antibody testing.

Nograles said the latest measure was approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on Monday.

Government data showed the Department of Foreign Affairs has already facilitated the repatriation of 16,682 OFWs, 13,213 of them are seafarers and 3,469 are land-based.

According to the World Health Organization, which says rapid antibody tests have limited utility for clinical diagnosis, “these test kits detect the presence of antibodies in the blood of people believed to have been infected with COVID-19.”

In the Philippines, the virus has already affected 6,459 individuals, including 613 recoveries and 428 fatalities.