Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) — Operations in two government offices were suspended until Friday as 12 of their staff tested positive for coronavirus disease after undergoing rapid antibody testing.
“The Land Transportation decided to suspend transactions at its Central Office and at its the Quezon City Licensing Office this afternoon until Friday in order to disinfect the premises and make sure that the possible transmission of the coronavirus is contained,” the agency said in a statement on Wednesday.
The LTO said its infected employees had undergone the reverse transcription – polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR test and are awaiting confirmatory results. Meanwhile, all employees of the two LTO offices will be tested for COVID-19 on Thursday, the LTO added.
RT-PCR tests, considered by health experts to be the gold standard in the testing for COVID-19, detect the actual virus that causes the disease, unlike rapid test kits which only screen for antibodies that fight against the virus.
On Tuesday, the country’s COVID-19 cases reached 26,781, with 1,103 deaths and 6,552 recoveries.
