The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said Wednesday said there are around 6,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are waiting for their coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) test results are isolated in quarantine hotels in Metro Manila.
The said OFWs were stranded in the capital region after Philippine Red Cross halted its operations stopped processing COVID-19 tests due to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation’s inability to settle its “ever-increasing outstanding balance.”
“Stranded in the sense na ‘yung 17 government labs ang nag pro-process nung results kaya tayo ay nananalig doon sa sinabi na three to seven days ang processing time,” OWWA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said in an interview on Dobol B sa News TV.
(Stranded in the sense that the 17 government labs are processing the results, we believe that the processing time is three to seven days.)
OWAA chief also said the quarantined OFWs did not exceed the capacity of the quarantine facilities.
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6k OFWs quarantined awaiting COVID-19 results – OWWA
“So far kakayanin, kakayanin natin dahil tatandaan natin nung bandang Mayo kinaya naman nung 12,000 hanggang 15,000. Kaya sa ngayon kung pinag-uusapan natin ay 6,000 hanggang 7,000 ay kakayanin ito, kakayanin ito ng ating hotel quarantine facilities in coordination with the Department of Tourism,” he said.
(We can do it because if we will remember that in May we were able to handle 12,000 to 15,000. So right now if we are talking about 6,000 to 7,000, we can handle it, our hotel quarantine facilities can handle it in coordination with the Department of Tourism.
The OWWA official said national and local government laboratories had processed 5,700 specimens in the past two days.
Cacdac also said that he is confident that the backlog would be completed.
“Kasi kanina lang nag pulong… nandoon ‘yung mga government laboratories na talagang nanalig tayo sa kanilang commitment na talagang they will process… within the normal times, processing times, schedules,” he said.
“So ‘yun napapakita naman nila, na demonstrate nila, in the last two days dahil 5,700 in two days ang lumabas na resulta,” he added.