Gapan City mayor tests positive for COVID-19

COVID-19 test_positive. STOCK PHOTO

GAPAN CITY, Nueva Ecija — Mayor Emerson Pascual of this city on Thursday (Aug. 5) announced that he tested positive for COVID-19 and is now being treated in a hospital.

The mayor said he took an antigen test after suffering from a headache on Wednesday which subsequently turned positive.

This also prompted him to take a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test that later confirmed his infection.

“May obligasyon ako na malaman ninyo kung ano ang tunay na kalagayan ng kalusugan ko, hindi ko dapat ilihim sa inyo at meron kayong karapatan na malaman ‘yon,” Pascual said in a video message from a hospital room on Thursday evening.

He appealed to his close contacts in the last three days to monitor their conditions.

“Mag-quarantine kayo, magpa-antigen kayo para po sigurado,” he told them.

At the onset of the pandemic, Pascual earned admiration online for his food aid package consisting of a sack of rice, bags of vegetables, live chickens, and fresh eggs to 34,000 households in the city.

While in the hospital, Pascual assured his constituents that the local government has again readied aid for every household in the city should the need arise amid the implementation of tighter border controls.

“Wala pong magiging kawawa sa lungsod ng Gapan,” Pascual said.