4th OFW on quarantine for Ebola released

CEBU, Philippines - The fourth person under investigation for Ebola in Central Visayas has been released after completing the mandatory 21-day quarantine.

Dr. Dino Caing, regional spokesperson for the Ebola watch, said the male overseas Filipino worker from Sierra Leone, West Africa has been “eager to join his family in Mindanao.”

With this, RESU no longer has a person under investigation (PUI) at its custody and continues to be on the lookout for returning OFW from West Africa.

All four PUIs in Central Visayas who were placed under quarantine did not feel any symptom but had to be taken custody due to mandatory quarantine.

They were all certified Ebola-free but could not return to the countries they used to work for due to a deployment ban by the national government.

Records at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration show that of the more than 3,000 documented Filipinos in West Africa, only 16 are from Central Visayas.

However, those from other regions are still monitored closely as they might pass through Mactan Cebu International Airport en route to their respective home provinces.

While health authorities nationwide are on heightened alert, Caing, who also heads the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of the Department of Health 7, assured that cases and deaths in West Africa have already decreased.

This, he added, indicates the positive results of the global response to Ebola.

Meanwhile, Caing further assured that the region remains to be free from another emerging infectious disease called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). — (FREEMAN)