The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) on Saturday advised overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are planning to go back home, to postpone their trips.
“My advice to our beloved OFW: kindly postpone your planned trip to our dear country, because there’s an increase in the new cases of COVID-19 and the escalation of stayers in our hotel quarantine facilities,” OWWA chief Hans Leo Cacdac said in a Twitter post.
In related developments:
• Processions will no longer be held this Holy Week in Catholic churches, while other activities in two Quezon City dioceses will be limited amid the rise in COVID-19 cases, officials said.
“Even if the number of COVID-19 cases has not gone up, processions are really not allowed,” Fr. Jerome Secillano, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said on Dobol B TV on Saturday.
• The Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, has been found to be effective for senior citizens, a woman legislator bared on Saturday.
San Jose Del Monte City Rep. Florida Robes, in a statement, said she is grateful that the Food and Drug Administration has given Sputnik V emergency use authorization in the Philippines.
• All 66 personnel of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 4-B (Mimaropa) who were considered close contacts of Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief, Gen. Debold Sinas, have tested negative for COVID-19.
“The results of the RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) test conducted have been released and all are negative. Likewise, as of this date, not anyone from the identified close contacts experienced COVID-19 symptoms,” PRO 4-B spokesperson, Lt. Col. Imelda Tolentino, said in a message to reporters on Saturday.
Tolentino said among those who tested negative was PRO 4-B Director, Brig. Gen. Pascual Muñoz Jr.
On Friday, the National Task Force against COVID-19 issued Memorandum Circular No. 6 which allows all Filipinos abroad to enter the country amid a temporary travel ban which will be in effect from March 22 to April 21.