QUARANTINE AID. Navy and Marine troops transport Tuesday (March 24, 2020) food items, medical supplies and other goods to Sibakel Island, Lantawan, Basilan where 121 people who arrived from Malaysia, are quarantined amid the threat of coronavirus disease 2019. The passengers have been classified as patients under investigation and persons under monitoring. (Photo courtesy of WesMinCom PIO)
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Health authorities have placed 30 of the 121 people aboard two vessels that arrived from Malaysia as patients under investigation (PUIs) and the remaining 91 as persons under monitoring (PUMs).
Currently, they are housed at the quarantine facility constructed in Sibakel Island, Lantawan town in Basilan province by the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) in coordination with the Department of Health (DOH).
Tahira Ismael, Lantawan municipal administrator, said Tuesday that all of the PUIs have cough and fever based on the medical findings of the town’s health office.
Ismael said the PUIs were separated from the PUMs and all are being closely monitored by the municipal health office.
The Westmincom built the facility to house them as the 121 returning Filipinos, including 10 children and crewmen--were denied entry into mainland Basilan since quarantine is already in effect when they arrived last week from Malaysia aboard M/L Ziara and M/L Rosmina.
Sibakel Island is an isolated area that can accommodate as many as 200 people.
Ismael said that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), municipal and provincial governments are providing the needs of the quarantined people in Sibakel Island. They are from this city, Zamboanga del Sur, and Central Mindanao.
Maj. Arvin John Encinas, Westmincom spokesperson, said Tuesday that the command together with the 4th Civil Relations Group (4CRG) and Junior Chamber International (JCI) have earlier delivered food items and other basic needs in the Sibakel Island quarantine facility.
Encinas said another batch of food supplies and medicines arrived Tuesday for the Sibakel Island quarantine facility occupants coming from the general headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Meanwhile, Basilan Governor Hadjiman Hataman-Salliman urged Basileños to stay home and cooperate with the authorities as the province is under the state of public health emergency.
Salliman also urged the residents to grow vegetables in their backyard to augment food supply. (PNA)
