Angara may no longer be infectious despite testing COVID-positive anew -Vergeire

Senator Sonny Angara may no longer be infectious even if he had once again tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday.

In a message to reporters, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the virus may still be apparent in the body of the recovered patients.

"But it doesn't mean that he is still infectious. Tama 'yung sinabi ng doctors niya na this might be remnants of the virus in his body, but are not necessarily infectious anymore," Vergeire said.

Vergeire clarified that Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test kits are not being recommended by health experts as a measure of cure against the COVID-19, but merely as a means to detect the virus.

The senator on Saturday afternoon announced that he has once again tested positive for the deadly disease. He, however, was not the first one to test positive anew.

In late April, two patients from the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao, both of which were mild cases, tested positive when they retook the test after their 14-day quarantine.

On Friday, two soldiers in Zamboanga del Sur also tested positive once more for the virus. -MDM, GMA News