ROBINSON NIÑAL/Presidential Communications Office
Public Works Secretary Mark Villar on Wednesday announced he had tested positive for Covid-19.
“I regret to announce that today, July 15, I received my test result and it is positive for Covid-19,” he said in a Facebook post.
Villar was recently named chief isolation czar under the National Task Force Covid-19.
After receiving the positive test, Villar missed the inauguration of the final section of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway set today.
The public works chief will also skip the inspection of the new terminal building of Clark International Airport in Pampanga.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año and Education Secretary Leonor Briones earlier tested positive for Covid-19 but have since recovered.
Spokesman, defense secretary test negative
Palace spokesman Harry Roque, meanwhile, announced that he had tested negative for Covid-19.
Roque interacted with Villar on July 10 during the groundbreaking of Cavitex segments 2 and 3.
Despite testing negative through a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test, Roque said he would still undergo a rapid antibody test before meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte and other Cabinet members this evening.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana also tested negative for the disease.
Lorenzana underwent quarantine after his aide tested positive. John Ezekiel J. Hirro