Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 2) — Two Metro Manila mayors announced on Sunday they tested positive for COVID-19, amid rising infections in the region.
CNN Philippines’ Paolo Barcelon contributed to this report.
Pasay City Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano has again tested positive for COVID-19 and is now undergoing facility isolation, her chief-of-staff Peter Eric Pardo told reporters on Sunday.
Pardo said the Pasay mayor will only hold online meetings while under isolation, assuring that she will continue to attend to her duties as local chief executive.
Pardo said Rubiano has been feeling “unwell” since Saturday last week, exhibiting symptoms such as a sore throat. She immediately took an RT-PCR test and was found positive for the virus.
This is the second time that Rubiano got COVID-19. She first contracted the disease in February 2021.
Meanwhile, Navotas City Mayor Toby Tiangco confirmed he contracted the disease after testing positive in a RT-PCR test he took on Sunday noon.
Pardo said the Pasay mayor will only hold online meetings while under isolation, assuring that she will continue to attend to her duties as local chief executive.
Tiangco said he has been constantly taking a self-antigen test, where he yielded a negative result on Saturday, due to being immunocompromised and having severe asthma.
Tiangco advised all those who had come in contact with him during the past few days to observe their health condition, while assuring that he will continue to perform his duties as city mayor.
The positive COVID-19 diagnoses of the two Metro Manila mayors come after the country recorded on Sunday its highest single-day increase in cases since October last year with 4,600 new infections, 3,279 of which were logged in the region.
