Briones tests negative for coronavirus

Education Secretary Leonor Briones. FILE PHOTO / Henzberg Austria / Senate PRIB

MANILA, Philippines — Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones has tested negative for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

“Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones tested negative for COVID-19 as results came back on Monday,” DepEd said Tuesday in a statement.

Briones earlier placed herself under self-quarantine as a precautionary measure against COVID-19.

Several DepEd officials and personnel also underwent self-quarantine after a participant in two of its meetings tested positive for the virus.

Other Cabinet members who have also tested negative for COVID-19 were Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez, Public Works, and Highways Mark Villar and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.

The country is currently under a state of public health emergency due to the virus, which originated from Hubei province in China.

Meanwhile, the entire Luzon was placed under an enhanced community quarantine where “strict home quarantine shall be implemented in all households; transportation shall be suspended; provision for food and essential services shall be regulated, and heightened presence of uniformed personnel to enforce quarantine procedures will be implemented.”

Health officials have so far recorded 142 cases, including 12 fatalities, related to COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by a 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.

Edited by JPV