Nasa 41 overseas Filipino worker (OFWs) ang kabuuang bilang sa ngayon ng tinamaan ng coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) sa Hong Kong habang ang bansa ay patuloy na nakikipaglaban sa ikalimang wave ng mga impeksyon na sanhi Omicron variant, ayon sa isang opisyal ng Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) kahapon.
“Those 41 cases, most of them are finished contracts…naturally when you have Covid-19 you can’t ride public transportation so they have to wait for the ambulance to come and get them. So this is probably what they say that they are on the street and they are waiting to be picked up by an ambulance,” ayon kay Assistant Secretary at International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB) chief Alice Visperas sa isang virtuall forum.
Iniulat niya na ang Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) sa host territory ay nagbigay ng pagkain, gamot, at tulong na pera sa mga Pilipino na una ay nagkakahalaga ng US$200 (humigit-kumulang PHP10,000).
“Our POLO is currently finalizing the breakdown but we were told this morning that more than half of them have finished their contracts already. Just a few numbers of them will be able to return to their employers,” ayon kay Visperas.
Dagdag pa niya, sa 41 na kaso, walo ang naka-recover mula sa Covid-19, tatlo ang babalik sa kanilang mga amo, dalawa ang nakabalik sa kanilang boarding house at tatlo ang nakahanda nang bumalik sa Pilipinas.
“The three will be able to return to their employers while the other two are just waiting for their final negative results and they will also return to their employers,” ayon pa rin sa opisyal ng DOLE.
Mayroong mahigit sa 220,000 OFW sa Hong Kong at 90 porsyento sa kanila ay mga domestic worker, ani Visperas.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
