Palace: First batch of Filipinos from China to arrive on Saturday, to be quarantined

(Eagle News)–The first batch of Filipinos who opted to leave China amid the novel coronavirus outbreak will arrive over the weekend, the Palace said on Wednesday, Feb. 5.

According to Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, the repatriated Filipinos will arrive at Clark Airport in Pampanga on Saturday.

They will then be brought to the drug rehabilitation facility inside Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija so they can undergo a 14-day quarantine.

Panelo said President Rodrigo Duterte has instructed Health Secretary Francisco Duque III during the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 4, to go to Fort Magsaysay “to properly address the people affected in detail.”

Duque, for his part, gave the assurance measures were in place.

He also asked the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Labor and Employment, the Department of Justice, and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, among other agencies, for help fight the novel coronavirus.

Officials on the ground, particularly barangay captains, “should act in accordance with the tempo dictated by the national government or face charges for non-feasance,” President Duterte said, according to Panelo.

The Presidential Communications Operations Office, for its part, was instructed to release advisories and guidelines laid out by health experts “with an assurance that if the public will just observe the same, then they should be safe from being infected by the virus,” Panelo said.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the Department of Education will be issuing advisories for students to avoid huge crowds.

She said the agency would also discourage schools from conducting field trips.

So far, two cases of the novel coronavirus, including one death, have been confirmed in the country.