MANILA – Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte revealed on Wednesday that she contracted the sting of Covid-19 and common areas in the City Hall would be closed for disinfection.
In a press statement Belmonte said “Nais ko pong ipahayag sa lahat ng aking minamahal na QCitizens na ako po ay nag-positibo sa aking huling Covid-19 test. Nagpapasalamat po ako na agad itong natuklasan. Sa ngayon, maayos po ang aking kalagayan at wala po akong nararamdamang anumang sintomas,” (I would like to let every QCititzen know that my last Covid-19 test turned out positive. I am very thankful that this was discovered right away. As of now, I am okay and I do not feel any symptoms.)
She lamented she acquired the virus despite her strictly compliance with quarantine protocols of the Department of Health, and city’s Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit had started contact tracing procedures.
Her hands-on approach to confront the public health issue might have weakened her defenses against the virus. “Dahil sa pagdalaw sa ating mga health center at ospital, special concern lockdown areas at mga komunidad upang alamin ang kanilang mga pangangailangan, sa simula pa lang, batid na naming posibleng mangyari ito,” she said. (Because of my visits to health centers, hospitals, special concern lockdown areas, as well as communities to know what they need, from the start, I already knew it was possible to contract the disease.)
Belmonte is not the only government officials who acquired the virus. Some cabinet members of President Duterte, senators, house representatives, and members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease have gotten new coronavirus on the onset of the pandemic. In fact, Senator Sonny Angara was reportedly found positive of the virus twice.
As of July 7, the country had 47,873 cases of Covid-19, with 12,386 recoveries and 1,309 deaths. Of this total confirmed cases, 3,869 came from Quezon City.
