With reports of seafarers stuck on ships as the COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of borders, President Rodrigo Duterte directs the Department of Foreign Affairs to help Filipinos left stranded in other nations.
In his virtual address to the nation on Monday night, the President asked the department's commercial, police, and military attachés across the globe to identify stranded Filipino nationals both in lands and at seas, and to conduct a report in their respective areas of responsibility.
Meanwhile, in the same taped address, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana reported that over 200,000 overseas Filipino workers affected by COVID-19 have already been brought home since the onset of the pandemic. He said that as of September 13, a total of 200,431 OFWs have been repatriated, while over 80,000 more are expected to arrive home before the year ends. He added that around 400 more OFWs stranded in Sabah are scheduled to fly home next Monday.
To date, figures from the DFA showed that a total of 10,314 overseas Filipinos in 76 countries have been infected with the coronavirus, of which 6,554 have recovered and 772 have died.
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