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18 Senate employees test positive in rapid tests for COVID-19 screening prior to session


Eighteen employees of the Senate yielded positive results in rapid tests for COVID-19 that were taken hours ahead of the resumption of session on Monday.

According to Senate President Vicente Sotto III, 12 were initially accounted for: two of them staff members of senators; one a waiter; one a page at the session hall; and the rest from the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms.

"Sent them already to hospitals with swab tests then quarantine," Sotto said.

The number later rose to 14 and then 15. By Monday evening, the number of employees testing positive had risen to 18.

In a statement, Senator Panfilo Lacson said that the families of the 18 employees will also be tested at the Senate clinic on Tuesday, free of charge.

"That is the essence of contact tracing which [the Department of Health] is miserably failing to do," he added.  

"That is why, I have always insisted, like a broken record, that massive tests using contact tracing as the baseline data or reference on who to test must be done soon."

 

 

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian confirmed that one of his staff members was among those who turned out positive for antibodies in the rapid testing.

According to the Department of Health, rapid test kits detect antibody isotypes IgM and IgG.

Health Undersecretary Vergeire explained that testing positive for IgM is a sign of active infection while having IgG indicates that a person has recently recovered.

Should anyone test positive for IgM, he or she should be isolated and subjected to a PCR-based test for validation of COVID-19 infection, the health official added.

PCR-based testing is considered the gold standard in detecting COVID-19 as it sees the actual virus in samples.

Earlier in the day, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said all senators and their staff who attending the session would be subjected to rapid testing.

Thermal scanners and foot baths were also positioned in the Senate lobby as part of the precautionary measures. — RSJ/BM, GMA News

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