House employee dies due to coronavirus

MANILA, Philippines — An employee of the House of Representatives died Sunday after being infected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

PBA Party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles said the employee, who worked for the House’s Printing Service, passed away at 1:45 a.m.

The news was also confirmed by House Secretary General Jose Luis Montales.

In a statement released Friday, Montales said that the employee had no travel history to any country with confirmed COVID-19 cases and had no history of exposure to a confirmed case.

The employee was the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the lower chamber.

Montales said that all personnel in the House’s Printing Service have been required to undergo self-quarantine and that contact tracing would be conducted by the Department of Health (DOH).

As a part of its measures to prevent the spread of the virus, the House is undertaking sanitation and disinfection of all 11 buildings of the Batasan Complex starting March 13 to 15.

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus that first emerged in China’s city of Wuhan in Hubei province in late 2019.

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses named the novel coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2.

The virus causes mild symptoms such as fever and cough for most people but can cause serious illness such as pneumonia for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems.

Coronavirus is a family of viruses, which surfaces have a crown-like appearance. The viruses are named for the spikes on their surfaces.