DTI chief catches COVID-19 a 2nd time

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, an advocate for reopening the economy despite no clear signs of flattening the curve, on Thursday said he tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time in months.

Lopez, who told reporters in a Viber message that he got his test result Thursday morning, said he was asymptomatic. He last got infected with the new coronavirus in December.

He said he would have another test and that he hoped it was just a false positive.

“[I’ve] been wearing [a face] mask, [face] shield and [been practicing social] distancing outside [my] home but [I] still got hit,” he said. He said he immediately isolated himself after testing positive.

In a separate Viber message, Lopez said he took the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR test, which is considered the gold standard for testing for the new coronavirus.

This developed as the country grapples with another rise in new coronavirus infections at a time when COVID-19 vaccination remains scarce.

Cabinet secretaries and government personnel are among the country’s many new COVID-19 cases.

Lopez announced that he was infected for the second time days after presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. and Philippine National Police chief Gen. Debold Sinas tested positive for the disease.

Roque, who is staying in a hotel serving as an isolation facility for COVID-19 patients, said more government personnel checked into the place.

Roque said also staying at the facility were a director from his office, two personnel of Malacañang’s Media Accreditation and Relations Office, an undersecretary from another department and a PTV-4 anchor.

The Presidential Communications Operations Office has five active cases, while PTV, which went off air on Wednesday for disinfection, has 19 active cases as of March 17.

Other officials who earlier tested positive for COVID-19 are Interior Secretary Eduardo Año and Metro Manila Development Authority chair Danilo Lim, who succumbed to the disease.