COTABATO CITY –– Another member of parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) was infected with the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
“I am sad to announce and inform the public that I tested positive for COVID-19,” Marjanie Mimbantas-Macasalong said in a statement released today.
He is the second BARMM executive to have contracted SARS CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Macasalong said that on Sunday, Sept. 6, he had fever and headache, and experienced body pains, so he isolated himself.
Although he felt better after two days, he submitted himself to a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test.
The results came out today.
“As to how and where I got the virus, I have no idea,” Macasalong said.
Macasalong has advised his family members, his office staff members, and field workers, as well as all people who had come in close contact with him in the past two weeks, to undergo self-isolation and submit themselves to testing.
On Sept. 2, Dr. Saffrullah Dipatuan, BARMM health minister, also admitted that he and his wife were infected with COVID-19. Both are now in isolation at the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City.
Macasalong is one of the ten new COVID-19 patients in the region.
In a bulletin from the health ministry, six of the new cases are from Maguindanao and four from Lanao del Sur.
BARMM now has a total of 749 cases, 187 of which are active.