Lorenzana to undergo self-quarantine after staff tests positive for COVID-19

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Tuesday said he would undergo self quarantine after one of his staff members tested positive for COVID-19.

In his message to reporters, Lorenzana said the staff member was with him when he went to Jolo, Sulu, on Monday but added that the staff member was not in the event with President Rodrigo Duterte.

He said the staff member learned that he got infected with the disease when they landed in Jolo.

"He came back with us to Manila yesterday in PPE (personal protective equipment)," Lorenzana, who is in his seventies, said.

Lorenzana said the same staff member was also with him when he went to Subic last Friday for the commissioning, blessing, and christening ceremony for the Philippine Navy's BRP Jose Rizal.

"All passengers of both planes have been informed and others he came in contact with while in Subic so that they can have themselves tested and go on quarantine," he said.

Armed Forces chief of staff General Filemon Santos told GMA News Online that he would also go into self-quarantine after he was also exposed to the staffer in Subic.

Santos, however, said he had already taken a swab test and had been found negative of the virus. 

His quarantine, Santos said, would be for five days.

Lorenzana said he was waiting for the result of his swab test which was done Tuesday morning.

It will be Lorenzana's second self quarantine, the first one being after he had contact with Armed Forces of the Philippines chief General Felimon Santos Jr., who had tested positive for COVID-19 in late May.

Lorenzana's previous COVID-19 test had yielded negative result.

Santos has since recovered from the disease. —KBK/NB, GMA News