Sulu Rep. Samier Tan tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), making him the second lawmaker to be infected with the dreaded disease.
Tan and three other House of Representatives workers were the latest individuals to have caught Covid -19 within the week before President Duterte’s State of the Nation Address on Monday.
House Secretary General Jose Luis Montales disclosed on Saturday that two more employes have been infected bringing to 22 the total number of COVID -19 cases among Lower House employes and officials.
The 19th case was reported on Friday, while a 52-year-old male employee assigned to the Bills and Index Division succumbed to the disease, making him the third House employe to die from COVID 19.
Montales said Tan had been confirmed to have tested positive for COVID 19.
“He last went to HRep on May 18. He is asymptomatic and under home quarantine in Sulu,” said Montales.
Bulacan Rep. Henry Villarica was the first congressman to report getting the infection. He was hospitalized on March 12 and recovered a few days later.
A few days later, ACT CIS Partylist Rep. Eric Go Yap announced he tested positive for COVID 19 but this was later corrected as a clerical error by the Department of Health.
Also in March, another partylist solon was reported to have caught the disease in Baguio City but he denied this, saying that he tested negative after a swab test.
Montales on Saturday revealed that a consultant of a congressman has also been infected with the virus.
“She went to HRep on July 14 & 15. On both occasions, she worked alone in their office. She also went to a bank in HRep Complex on July 15,” Montales said.
“Another employee, a committee publication staff writer, also tested positive. She last reported for work on July 8, but did not interact with any one in her office. She was tested after developing fever with colds,” he said.