18 Senate employees test positive for virus in rapid test

MANILA, Philippines — Eighteen  Senate personnel who reported for work at the resumption of the chamber’s regular session on Monday tested positive in the rapid test for the new coronavirus disease.

But Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian clarified that a positive result in the rapid test, which traces antibodies from a blood sample, did not necessarily mean that an individual was infected with COVID-19.

“It’s too [premature] to panic because it’s not certain that [one already has] COVID-19,” said Gatchalian, whose staff member was among those who tested positive.

“The rapid test is an indication that there is a possibility [that the person] contracted the virus,” he explained.

A staffer of Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, a COVID-19 survivor, also tested positive.

Those who had a positive result will undergo the more reliable polymerase chain reaction test.

—Marlon Ramos