Manila: The Philippine government wants compulsory testing of overseas Filipino workers for Mers-CoV, (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) after a pregnant Filipina nurse tested positive for the viral infection when she came home from Saudi Arabia early this month, a senior official said.

A meeting of various government agencies was scheduled to determine steps for the implementation of “compulsory testing for Mers-CoV,” said Charles Jose, foreign affairs department spokesman.

Government officials will discuss if Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) will be required to undergo compulsory testing for the virus “after they arrive from Mers-affected countries or before they leave for overseas jobs,” said Jose.

The Philippine government is not imposing travel restriction to and from the Arabian Peninsula, Jose clarified.

Other sources, who requested anonymity, told Gulf News the extra measure is being proposed to prevent travel restrictions to and from the Middle East.

The Philippine government has no law to implement compulsory testing for all other deadly viral infections erupting abroad where OFWs are based, explained Jose.

The health department has established five additional laboratories, two in Metro Manila; one each in northern Luzon’s Baguio City, central Philippines’ Cebu City, and southern Philippines’ Davao City, for Mers tests.

Various agencies have been enforcing the strict observance of voluntary testing for Mers-CoV after the Filipina nurse who was based in Riyadh tested positive when she arrived in the Philippines.

“Filipino health care personnel in the Middle East are also encouraged to adhere to recommended infection control measures [of the Philippine government] and to volunteer to be tested for Mers before they return to the Philippines,” said Jose, adding that Philippine labour and health officials abroad are instructed to help implement these measures.

The foreign affairs department renewed calls on all Philippine and foreign-based private recruiters to report continuously to Philippine embassies and consulates about the health condition of OFWs based in countries where deadly viral infections have erupted, said Jose.

The infected nurse is being treated at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in suburban Muntinlupa. Her husband, although having tested negative for Mers, was confined at RITM after showing symptoms such as coughing, high fever and shortness of breath.

Twelve other symptomatic cases who tested negative for Mers-CoV included two more passengers of the Saudi Airlines flight SV 850, which arrived with the infected nurse in Manila on February l; and 10 of 56 doctors, nurses, and medical workers of Evangelista Medical Speciality Hospital in southern Luzon’s Laguna, where she was initially confined on February 2.

The nurse’s mother-in-law, two household workers, and more than 100 of the 225 Saudi Air passengers have tested negative for the infection.

Five Filipinos died of Mers in the Middle East last year, reports said. Ten to 12 million OFWs are based worldwide. Close to two million are in the Middle East.

Nine Middle East counties and 13 others, including the Philippines, have Mers cases.

Some 358 people, out of 975 cases, have died of Mers since 2012, the World Health Organisation said.