WHO Philippines to LGUs: Quarantine, test returning residents

Published Jul 3, 2020 3:28:58 PM

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 3) — The World Health Organization in the Philippines is urging local authorities to follow quarantine protocols on returning residents, citing a “worryingly” large number of infections in the regions.

“These new infections in new regions [are] oftentimes being influenced by people travelling from infected areas where there is active transmission to those areas,” WHO Country Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, said in an online briefing Friday.

While there’s concentration of COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila and Central Visayas, Abeyasinghe said more new infections are being recorded in CALABARZON, Central Luzon, Northern Mindanao, SOCCSKSARGEN, Eastern Visayas, “and maybe a few other regions.”

He said the WHO understands the need to bring residents home as many lost their jobs in the middle of the pandemic. However, he reminds authorities that “bringing these people require quarantining them, testing them and managing them so they do not introduce newer infections into the country, into their home provinces.”

He added that the testing of returning Filipinos contributed to the large number of cases in the Philippines.

SOURCE: https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/7/3/WHO-Philippines-quarantine-test-returning-residents.html