By Peter Tabingo and Gerard Naval
VICE President Leni Robredo went on a self-imposed quarantine over the weekend after being informed that she and a staff came in contact with a person who later tested positive for COVID-19.
In a post on her official Facebook page, Robredo said she has called off all travel plans after she and her staff were notified Friday morning that they both “had very close contact” with a COVID case.
“Following protocols, we decided to do self quarantine beginning Friday until we get a swab test. So, all events for Friday until necessary will be done online,” she said.
Malacanang wished Robredo “good health” following her reported exposure to a COVID positive patient.
“We wish her good health,” Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said when asked for comment on the Vice President’s situation.
Robredo had been planning to make personal visits this week to Community Learning Hubs put up by OVP volunteers in several provinces.
“We are postponing these until we get cleared,” she said.
The announcement came on the heels of what Robredo called a “blockbuster week” which saw the Office of the Vice President open 13 community learning hubs in various areas of the country; deliver testing kits to Iloilo province and Iloilo City; and co-sponsor a skills training program for 1,000 out-of-school youth with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Philippine Business for Education (PBEd).
She also personally appeared at the community learning hubs in Pasig City and in Taytay, Rizal Monday while town hall meetings with “turo guro” or teacher volunteers for the learning hubs and virtual conferences with Bayanihan Mart entrepreneurs were held on line later in the week.
Back in July, the OVP also suspended operations for a few days after four employees of her office tested positive for coronavirus and had to undergo further testing.
Robredo, in the past, had called attention to the government’s supposed slow actions to address the COVOD-19 situation and called for a more comprehensive, quick, and clear plan to deal with the pandemic.
She said current government efforts, including the provision of Bayanihan 2 package, may not be enough to address the COVID-19.
2,223 NEW CASES
More than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported by the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday, while nearly 15,000 more patients have successfully recovered from the dreaded virus.
In its latest bulletin, the DOH said that of the 2,223 new cases, 112 came from Quezon City while Laguna had 111, Rizal 109, Cavite 79, and Batangas 74.
Overall, the total number of infections in the country rose to 370,028.
There were 43 new deaths, raising the number of fatalities to 6,977. Majority of the new deaths were recorded in NCR with 16 while CALABARZON had 8, and Caraga 4.
There were 14,944 new recoveries, meaning the number of survivors now total 328,036.
There were 1,923 new cases last Friday, 132 deaths and 424 recoveries while there were 2,057 new cases last Saturday, 19 deaths and 442 recoveries.
The DOH had previously attributed the high number of recoveries to its “Oplan Recovery,” a program that monitors the status of confirmed COVID-19 cases with mild symptoms and are asymptomatic.
“Oplan Recovery” uses the time-based recovery system, wherein those who have completed the 14-day isolation period and are cleared by a physician are tagged as having recovered despite not undergoing repeat RT-PCR testing.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said only one overseas Filipino has been infected with the deadly virus yesterday, bringing the number to 11, 199.
The lone case was registered in the Asia-Pacific region.
The DFA reported no new recovery or fatality among overseas Filipinos. — With Ashzel Hachero and Jocelyn Montemayor
