EL NIDO, Palawan — The female locally stranded individual (LSI) in this town who was reactive to rapid diagnostic testing (RDT) upon arrival on June 18 aboard Airswift has tested negative for COVID-19.
Municipal health officer Dr. Marian Relucio said the confirmatory result of the swab collected from her returned negative on Saturday night for SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, from the Ospital ng Palawan’s (ONP) RT-PCR GeneXpert laboratory.
Dr. Relucio said the female LSI is still in their isolation facility. However, a meeting will be held anytime soon to discuss if she will be transferred to a quarantine area.
“Negative po ang swab test result niya. Pagmi-meeting-an pa namin if kailangan ba namin siya i-transfer sa quarantine facility. Yong mga kasamahan niya ay sumasailalim din sa 14 days na quarantine,” she said.
“Kahit pa man makakauwi na sila if matapos na nila ito, pinapayuhan pa rin namin na umiwas o i-minimize lang ang kanilang mga social activities at ang laging pagsunod sa health standards gaya ng pagsusuot ng face mask at social distancing,” Dr. Relucio added.
On June 18, 13 LSIs returned home to El Nido aboard an Airswift flight. One of them was reactive to the RDT and was isolated and swabbed for confirmatory testing.
Since then, the municipal government decided to temporarily suspend inbound flights at Lio Airport to allow a review of procedures following the RDT reactive case.
Public information officer Kurt Acosta told Palawan News on June 19 that the order is effective immediately.
“Initially, stop muna ni LGU ang mga inbound flights kasi kailangan naming e-assess ang situation. We need to check if may mga policies need na baguhin or i-improve pero idadaan ‘yan sa IATF but outbounds ay papayagan, although wala pang official na paper pero papunta doon ang direction ni LGU,“ Acosta said.
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