Rizal Stadium closed for disinfection

MANILA, Philippines — Authorities shut down yesterday the Rizal Memorial Stadium after 48 locally stranded individuals (LSIs) who stayed in the facility for the national government’s “Hatid Tulong” program tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 during rapid tests.

More than 6,500 LSIs vacated the facility to give way to disinfection.

Aside from the baseball and track and field stadium where the LSIs stayed, the office of the Philippine Sports Commission and Manila Department of Public Services were also sanitized.

More than 1,000 LSIs boarded a ship bound for Zamboanga yesterday.

Other stranded passengers whose municipalities in the provinces were not ready to receive them were transferred to temporary shelters in Bulacan.

At least 6,583 stranded individuals availed themselves of the government’s travel assistance program.

The LSIs who tested positive for the virus are waiting for the results of their confirmatory swab tests in a quarantine facility in Manila before they will be given the green light to travel to the provinces.