Senators, staff exposed to Lorenzana test negative for coronavirus

MANILA, Philippines — All senators and Senate staff exposed to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who initially received a positive COVID-19 test result after attending the budget debates, tested negative for the coronavirus.

“Negative lahat including all Senate employees present last Tuesday,” Senate President Vicente Sotto III told reporters on Monday.

(All tested negative including all Senate employees present last Tuesday.)

In a separate message, Senate Majority Juan Miguel Zubiri also said he and other senators who were in contact with Lorenzana all tested negative for the virus.

“Negative ako at negative din lahat nang senators exposed sa kanya last week. Kaya tuloy sessions namin nang 10am to tackle the budget. No more delays para ma approve na namin ito,” Zubiri said.

(I tested negative as well as the senators exposed to him last week. That’s why we will resume the sessions at 10 a.m. to tackle the budget. No more delays so we can approve the budget already.)

On Tuesday, Lorenzana physically attended the plenary debates on the budget of the Department of National Defense.

The next day, senators were informed that Lorenzana tested positive for the virus.

Due to the incident, all the budget deliberations scheduled on Thursday were canceled, with the debates resuming on Monday, Nov. 22.

But in a follow up swab test, the defense chief informed senators on Friday that he tested negative.

“Sec. Del Lorenzana sent a text informing me of his latest RT PCR negative test. It appears the Wednesday test was false positive,” Sotto had said.

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