Zubiri: Senators who had contact w/ Lorenzana asked to self-quarantine

All senators and Senate staff who had contact with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana during the defense of his agency’s budget were told to go on self-quarantine as a precautionary measure after the Cabinet official confirmed he tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Migz Zubiri said.

“After being told that one of the Secretaries had gotten a positive result of their RT-PCR test right after visiting the Senate for the defense of their budget , we in the Senate decided to take extra precautions by informing all those in close contact with the Secretary to start self-quarantine and to test after 5 days from exposure,” he said.

Zubiri said it was unfortunate that on the day of Lorenzana’s appearance at the Senate, November 16, “an unusual number of Senators present in session as we had an official delegation from the Hungarian parliament present as well.”

“After learning about the Secretary’s positive Covid report, we the Senators who were actively participating on the floor also had antigen test done by the Senate doctor and fortunately we were all negative as of last night,” he said.

“But as a precaution, we had decided to cancel all the budget deliberations today so as not to expose the other Departments from possible Covid-19 and to allow the Senate to be disinfected and all the members and staff to quarantine and be PCR tested after 5 days of exposure,” Zubiri said.

“If the results are negative for the Members and Secretariat then we continue our Budget deliberations on Monday,” he added.

The Senate also toughened its protocols by requiring all visitors for the budget deliberation to present a 24-hour RT PCR report instead of a 72-hour result.

“The reason being is that the Secretary presented a 72-hour result but was obviously exposed after that,” Zubiri said.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)