(Eagle News)–Over 800 Filipino seafarers who were stranded in the United States have arrived in the Philippines, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
The DFA said the 881 sailors were from various cruise ships stranded due to the coronavirus 2019 pandemic.
Of the number, 445 are from Norwegian Cruises Dawn and Encore, and another 436 from MV Magica and MV Favolosa.
“The DFA and the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC closely coordinated with the Department of Health, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Department of Transportation, Department of Interior and Local Government, and the local manning agencies for the seamless repatriation,” the DFA said.
The seafarers will undergo the mandatory 14-day facility-based quarantine monitored by the Bureau of Quarantine, the DFA added.
Last Saturday, 370 Filipino sailors from three cruise liners off Italy arrived in the Philippines.
Earlier, the Philippine government also repatriated Filipinos from the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan.
The people on board the cruise ship had been quarantined off Yokohama after one of its passengers who joined a bus tour in Kyushu tested positive for COVID-19.
