By AARON RECUENCO
Six Filipino co-passengers of the two foreign tourists who tested positive for novel coronavirus showed signs and symptoms of the disease, the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit said yesterday.
Police Col. Rhoderick Armamento, deputy director for operations of the PNP-CIDG, said three of the passengers were on board the Jan. 21 Cebu City-Dumaguete City flight of Cebu Pacific while the three others were in the Dumaguete-Manila flight of the Philippine Airlines.
“Among the 61 passengers on board the Cebu Pacific Flight 5J 241 from Cebu to Dumaguete City, the CIDG has already contacted 23 passengers, of which, three were confirmed to have manifested signs and symptoms of the respiratory infection,” said Armamento.
He said one of the three passengers went to a local hospital for quarantine while the two opted to stay inside their house.
Armamento said that they have advised the Department of Health about the two other passengers.
“For the 132 passengers of PAL 2452 from Dumaguete City to Manila, 25 passengers were already contacted, three of which are now on quarantine in different hospitals,” said Armamento.
The CIDG has been tapped to conduct contact tracing of all the passengers of two domestic flights boarded by the two Chinese tourists.
The two foreigners tested positive for novel coronavirus and one of them has died.
The PNP was given 48 hours starting Wednesday to trace all the passengers.
“We are doing the contact tracing through phone calls in order to protect our personnel. We also tapped the Anti-Cybercrime Group to contact them through e-mail or social media accounts,” said Armamento.
Among those contacted were seven foreigners on board the two domestic flights. But police said they are all in good health condition.
Armamento said that the DoH will take care of contacting all the passengers of the Hongkong-Cebu flight boarded by the two Chinese.
Armamento said they only managed to contact 48 passengers last Wednesday as they encountered some problems.
He said that some passengers would not answer their phone calls while some appeared to be non-existent.
“That’s why during our meeting, we asked the airline companies to accomplish the vital information needed before the passengers are allowed entry to the country,” said Armamento.
The CIDG sought the help of the ACG to contact the rest of the passengers.
All passengers who have been contacted by the CIDG were advised to avoid unnecessary contact with people and stay at home as much as possible, according to Armamento.
“They were also asked to monitor themselves for fever, colds, and cough; and observe proper hygiene, to wear masks, and immediately contact the Department of Health if they experience any signs and symptoms of respiratory infection,” he said.