MANILA, Philippines — The Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases will now be conducting its meetings via teleconferencing, its spokesperson Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Thursday.
Nograles said he and other members of the IATF have opted to work from home and undergo self-quarantine after some of them were exposed to a House lawmaker who tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“Kaming mga kasamahan nila sa Gabinete, second-generation po kami. Wala naman sa protocol na mag-quarantine kami pero ang ilan sa amin minabuti na lang po namin, katulad ko, na mag-voluntary self-quarantine na lamang,” Nograles said in an interview over dzBB.
(We, the other Cabinet members, are considered as second-level exposure. While it is not part of the protocol, we opted to go on voluntary quarantine.)
“Pero kami sa IATF, patuloy ang aming trabaho through telecon[ference] na lang,” he added.
(But we in the IATF will continue our work through teleconference.)
ACT-CIS Rep. Eric Yap Go confirmed on Wednesday that he tested positive for COVID-19.
Yap was among the attendees of a meeting in Malacañang on March 21 to discuss measures to fight COVID-19.
He said he also attended the House’s special session on the approval of a bill granting President Rodrigo Duterte additional powers to address the virus outbreak.
Nograles said among the reasons why he decided to go on quarantine was to appease “public displeasure.”
“Ang problema kasi dahil sa nangyayaring politicians na nagkaroon ng ganitong exposure at mukhang merong konting public displeasure, ayaw namin na ‘yung attention napunta dun sa kung sinong Cabinet member ngayon ang mag-quarantine,” he said.
(The problem here is that there is public displeasure towards politicians who are having this type of exposure. We don’t want the attention to focus on whoever Cabinet members will undergo quarantine.)