MANILA – Weeks after his recovery, Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara has tested positive again for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Angara said on his Facebook post on Saturday he was preparing to donate his blood plasma for a second time but the results of the initial antibody test taken before donating had him take another swab test, which registered positive.
“My wife Tootsy has tested negative, which could be proof of what my doctors are positing that I am probably no longer infectious and that this latest positive result is probably picking up remnants of the virus,” Angara said.
“Nothing is 100 percent sure at this point so it is best to be prudent and cautious and thus it is best that I not attend Senate sessions in person for the risk posed to others. And we will follow the usual quarantine procedures for myself and members of my household as a precaution,” he added.
Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, for her part, said that the virus may still be apparent in the body of the recovered patients but they are not infectious.
“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 in a virtual press conference.
Vergeire clarified that reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction 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.
Pimentel, who earlier came under fire for violating his quarantine protocols, said he has already tested negative for COVID-19, a month after he was diagnosed with the infection.
Pimentel said he had retaken a swab test on April 13 and received the results ten days later. He now considers himself “COVID free” and a “recovered person” given that it has been a long time since his first confirmatory swab test on March 20.
“That has been 44 days already. That’s already three 14-day cycles!” Pimentel said in a statement. “Since I am still alive, the sense [is] that the virus has already run its course.”
Pimentel drew flak before for potentially exposing hospital staff to the coronavirus after breaking stay-at-home protocols. Pimentel visited the Makati Medical Center on March 24 to accompany his pregnant wife despite him being monitored for the virus.
Pimentel has since apologized to hospital management who nevertheless released a statement criticizing the senator for endangering the health of their employees. The National Bureau of Investigation has started a probe into his possible quarantine breach./PN
