An employee from the Lower House has tested positive for COVID-19.
An employee from the House of Representatives has tested positive for coronavirus disease or COVID-19, according to Secretary-General Jose Luis Montales.
This, as Secretary-General Jose Luis Montales stated in a text message sent to all House members and employees on Thursday, March 12, that he received information wherein “an employee from our Printing Service tested positive for COVID-19,” adding that they will “require all personnel of the Printing Service to undergo self-quarantine.”
Several sources, including congressmen, told Manila Bulletin that an infected employee also has siblings who also worked in the different departments of the chamber. However, the same sources revealed in an interview with Manila Bulletin that the said employee was “first admitted at an undisclosed hospital in November 2019” and was diagnosed with a lung ailment.
Following an employee’s first admission, the patient has had a record of hospital confinements, yet an employee’s COVID-19 diagnosis was given only recently. Secretary-General Jose Luis Montales stated that the Department of Health (DOH) will start conducting contact tracing of “all other persons, including employees of other departments of the House of Representatives, who had been in contact with him.”
The infected employee, according to Montales, has “no history of travel to any country with confirmed COVID-19 case” and has also “no known history of exposure to a confirmed case of COVID-19”.
Stay tuned to Philippine Newspaper for more updates.