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LGUs agree to implement home quarantine for returning OFWs

Local government units in the Philippines have agreed to enforce home isolation for Overseas Filipino Workers returning to their cities instead of isolating them in a facility, according to Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año.
In a televised meeting with Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the secretary said that OFWs who have completed their 14-day quarantine at a government-assigned facility upon their arrival and have tested negative on their swab test can soon be reunited with their families at their respective provinces.
“All of our LGUs are already accepting OFWs as per your instruction. At first, they had doubts because they are uncertain if these OFWs can infect others, so we had an agreement with all LGUs, mayors, governors that all of them will be accepted but they will impose an additional home quarantine,” Año said.
READ ALSO: Duterte orders LGUs to accept returning OFWs back to home provinces
However, he said that if their homes congested, they can have the option of being put in isolation facilities in their barangays, “so that they are within reach of their families.”
In a report by Philippine News Agency, the secretary added that nearly 12,000 OFWs are set to arrive in their respective provinces by May 30.
Recently, OFWs have complained about being stuck in the government’s quarantine facilities even after 14 days—pushing President Rodrigo Duterte to order DILG and the Department of Health to send home around 24,000 OFWs to their respective provinces within a week.
READ ALSO: President Duterte instructs PH officials to send home 24,000 OFWs remaining in quarantine centers

Staff Report

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