A man stands on a bank of the Huangpu river in Pudong, amid the lockdown in the Pudong area, to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Shanghai, China March 28, 2022. REUTERS/Aly Song
MANILA, Philippines — Ten Filipinos are currently undergoing quarantine in Shanghai after contracting COVID-19, the Philippine Consulate General there said Wednesday.
“We regret that we have right now 10 of our nationals who have been taken to quarantine, who have tested positive,” Consul General Josel Ignacio said in an ANC interview.
The consulate is directly in touch with the Filipinos, he added.
“They have reached out to us and we are taking care, looking after them, one-on-one, we are in direct communication, they tell us what they need. We try to elevate that to the authorities in different ways depending upon their needs,” he said.
According to Ignacio, the number of COVID-19 cases is “peaking” in Shanghai for the past weeks.
“It’s a big spike and for the longest time, they did not have any fatalities. But now they had about three new fatalities, bringing the total to 10,” he said.
Shanghai, China’s largest city, has been on lockdown since late last month following a new surge of cases.
Ignacio said the consulate is monitoring the “progression of this lockdown.”
He said the city is currently implementing a “dynamic case clearing” which aims to achieve “zero cases and zero transmission” at the community level.
Due to this, Shanghai residents, which Ignacio estimated at around 23 to 24 million, “go through very regular, rigid testing several times a week in order to detect and isolate these cases.”
“And hopefully, eventually, they will come to a point where the total city lockdown will be narrowed down to just very localized areas and allow certain amounts of freedoms,” Ignacio said.
Aid to Filipinos
According to Ignacio, one of the challenges the consulate anticipated going into the lockdown is the need to access food amid “some episodes of panic buying” in the city.
“The fund comes from Manila and heading into this lockdown, we anticipated this range of problems that our people here will encounter. We made a recommendation to Manila heading into the lockdown, we saw some episodes of panic buying and supply lines being so tight, the recommendation we felt would address the common challenges would be in terms of providing a measure of food security for our nationals,” the consul general said.
“That’s why the request for assistance is in the form of vouchers, food cards that are as good as cash which Filipinos can use to purchase food online,” he added, noting these can be delivered online in light of limited mobility in the city.