(Eagle News) – Nearly 500 tourists who came to the Philippines through the Kalibo International Airport from Wuhan City before the lockdown began, will be transported back to China.
According to the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), air carriers Royal Air Philippines and Pan Pacific Airlines will be sending back the visitors to Wuhan, China on Friday night, Saturday and Monday.
CAB Executive Director Carmelo Arcilla, in an interview with CNN Philippines, said that the tourists will be repatriated “starting tomorrow” and that they’ll be closely monitoring the situation.
Both Royal Air Philippines and Pan Pacific Airlines have direct flights from Wuhan to Kalibo, Aklan.
Hours before the lockdown of Wuhan City in China, the epicenter of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak, a plane was able to fly out early Thursday morning.
A Royal Air Charter flight that arrived at the Kalibo airport departed from Wuhan before 6 a.m. Thursday carrying 135 passengers. The plane arrived before the lockdown was instituted in Wuhan, China which is the epicenter of the deadly and highly infections coronavirus. The passengers were reportedly headed for Boracay Island.
The CAB, through Executive Director Carmelo Arcilla, also issued an advisory directing all air carriers “with flights coming directly and connection from China to secure a health declaration checklist from the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ).”
The advisory signed by Arcila said that the air carriers should also “disseminate the said checklist to passengers on board prior to disembarkation.”
The advisory was issued “in connection with the preparation and response measures being undertaken by the Government in relation to the threat of the 2019 Novel Corona Virus (2019-n-Cov).”
It said that it is mandatory for all the passengers on board such air carriers to fill out this checklist prior to disembarkation.
“This Advisory is issued to stress the importance of the Health Declaration Checklist in preventing the spread of the said virus in the Philippines, and to assist the BOQ, through the Medical Quarantine, in intercepting passengers possibly infected by the said disease,” Arcilla said in the advisory dated Jan. 23, 2020.
The coronavirus infection has so far claimed 26 lives in China where infections have reached more than 830.