OFW who used fake quarantine pass is Catanduanes’ 2nd COVID-19 case

A returning overseas Filipino worker (OFW) is under quarantine in Catanduanes after Department of Health Bicol officials confirmed on Friday that he is the province’s second COVID-19 patient.

DOH Bicol said the OFW had already been confirmed as COVID-19-positive by the Philippine Red Cross in Metro Manila last June 1 after his return from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

The OFW used a fake quarantine pass when he arrived in the province last June 8 through the Balik Happy Island Program.

The Provincial Government of Catanduanes has imposed stricter protocols in the inspection of documents of returning OFWs and locally stranded individuals as a result.

The government will require returning OFWs to secure a copy of the Molecular Laboratory Result Form issued by the Philippine Red Cross to confirm that they tested negative for COVID-19 after going through Real Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing.

Catanduanes however announced that its Balik Happy Island program will continue and will not be affected by the suspension of the Balik Probinsya Program of the National Government .

Of the 82 total recorded COVID-19 cases in the Bicol Region, 68 patients have recovered, seven are still in the hospital, two are in quarantine facilities and five have died from the disease.