DepEd confirms Mandaluyong official positive for COVID-19
MANILA, Philippines — A Department of Education official who visited the recently held National Festival of Talents and National Schools Press Conference tested positive on COVID-19.
In a statement Friday, DepEd said it received information that a Mandaluyong City schools division official tested positive on the novel coronavirus diseases on Wednesday, March 25.
The patient is currently confined at an undisclosed hospital and is recovering, DepEd said. Assistance has also been provided to him.
It is unclear from the statement if the patient exhibited symptoms or was asymptomatic. DepEd, however, said close contacts of the patient have not exhibited symptoms so far.
“As he visited some competition events at the NFOT, we also checked on updates of our precautionary home quarantine of NFOT and NSPC delegates,” it added.
The national campus journalism competition was held in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan on March 9-13, while the NFOT was held in Ilagan City, Isabela last March 9 to 13.
The weekend before the twin national events, President Rodrigo Duterte suspended classes in all levels as a measure to contain the spread of the virus, but the two events pushed through because the Department earlier said that “participants are already in the venue.”
In an earlier release, DepEd said there will be strict observance of safety protocols at the two national events.
DepEd said it has “monitored a small number of participants that were classified as PUIs but there is no link that can be established to the patient from Mandaluyong.”
“We have coordinated with the DOH and no less than the Secretary of Health has instructed his staff to do an extensive contact tracing as it is still an imperative for an effective containment,” the department added.
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