Cauayan City—The Provincial Government of Isabela has issued a memorandum ordering all Overseas Filipino Workers returning to the province to undergo the mandatory Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction test.
Gov. Rodito Albano 3rd said the issuance of Memorandum 2020-2 would ensure that each OFW returnee was free the deadly coronavirus disease 2019.
Lawyer Elizabeth Binag, Isabela provincial information officer, said the issuance of the memorandum by the governor was in response to reported OFWs who turned positive of the virus after they have arrived, some of them have mingled with relatives and friends, in the province.
“Although these OFW returnees have already been swab tested with negative results, they are still mandated to be brought to testing areas for their RT-PCR tests,” Albano said.
For more than a month the province of Isabela has not recorded any report of COVID-19 infection until the arrival of locally stranded individuals and OFWs.
Albano added that all the OFW returning individuals need to undergo the mandatory quarantine in facilities prepared for them in Cordon and Echague towns while waiting for their swab test results.
The governor also ordered proper authorities to be stricter in implementing policies in fighting COVID-19 in the province.