SAN MATEO, Rizal- With the mayor and vice-mayor having tested positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the municipal administrator has been designated the signatory in all the local government's official transactions effective Aug. 20, the day the two local officials announced their health condition.
The San Mateo municipal government announced on its Facebook page that Mayor Cristina Diaz designated Municipal Administrator Ricardo R. Gomez the alternate signatory to all official local government transactions, in a memorandum addressed to all of the municipality's officials and employees.
A few hours prior to the announcement authorizing Gomez to sign in behalf of the town mayor, Vice Mayor Jose Rafael Diaz, the mayor's husband, revealed on his personal Facebook page that he and his wife learned the result of their swab test on Aug. 20.
The vice mayor said they both underwent a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test on Aug. 18.
Vice Mayor Diaz also wrote his Facebook post that they were both having mild symptoms. He surmised that his wife could have contracted the coronavirus during her rounds of the municipality, including the locked-down communities.
He also said his wife had been in contact with the town’s frontliners and healthworkers in recent weeks.
On Aug. 17, Mayor Diaz announced that she would take a COVID test upon the appeal of Rizal Governor Rebecca Ynares, who on Aug. 16 said that she would undergo testing after she and other local officials met Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año at an event in the Rizal Provincial capitol in Antipolo City on Aug. 12.
Año tested positive in a swab test a few days after the Antipolo event.
Meanwhile, aside from the Diaz couple, Pililla Mayor Dan Masinsin also tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 18. The municipal government wrote in a Facebook post that Masinsin started feeling symptoms on Aug. 10, prompting him to go into self-isolation at the time. He was swab tested on Aug. 15 and later admitted to a private hospital.
The local government of Pililla has also urged those who might have interacted with Masinsin since Aug. 8 to immediately inform the municipal health office by calling its hotline -- 0977-830-9321 -- especially if they have the symptoms of the virus such as cough, fever, body pains, and difficulty breathing, among others.