Safety measures in place for New Clark City as quarantine area

Athlete’s village in New Clark City. (File photo via PNA)

MANILA — The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) said preventive and precautionary measures are in place in New Clark City, where Filipinos to be repatriated from China’s Hubei province would be quarantined.

“We would like to assure the municipality of Capas and its officials that the national government will address all the issues and concerns raised following the decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force for Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to use New Clark City as a quarantine site for our repatriated kababayans,” the BCDA said in a statement released Friday.

The task force chose the Athlete’s Village in New Clark City that was built for the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games as the quarantine site for 45 Filipinos from Hubei, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), who are expected to arrive on Sunday.

“All preventive and precautionary measures are being put in place by the Task Force not only for our repatriated kababayans, but to also ensure that the adjacent communities of New Clark City and all Capaseños are kept safe and protected,” the BCDA added.

The Athlete’s Village, along with other facilities for the 2019 SEA Games, is the first development in the 9,450-hectare New Clark City.

The Department of Health said there would be limited contact with the community if the repatriated Filipinos stay within the New Clark City property.

On Thursday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the repatriated OFWs would be oriented on the quarantine process and asked to fill up health cards.

Centralized processing of all immigration documents will also be done, he added.

The Bureau of Quarantine will coordinate the disinfection of the OFWs’ luggage and the airplane while the Central Health Development Central Luzon will be in charge of disinfecting the vehicles used for transport.

Since the OFWs would be provided packed meals and other needs, Duque said their movement shall be limited to the quarantine building.

The DOH will be in charge of the management coordination and logistics of the quarantine process.

All DOH hospitals in the region will be in charge of deploying medical teams to the quarantine area.

Upon completion of the 14-day quarantine period, the discharge of the repatriated OFWs shall be facilitated by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs.