Provincial Councilors League President for Negros Oriental Manuel “Chaco” Sagarbarria Jr. has downplayed fears the coronavirus may have infected several councilors who attended their national PCL convention on Feb. 26 to 28 in Manila.
Sagarbarria said the CoViD-19 patient, a councilor of Tayasan whom he refused to name, was with them all along since arriving Manila on Feb 26.
All the councilors went to the SMX Convention Center in Pasay on Feb. 27 for the unsuccessful PCL elections, and went to dinner with the three Congressmen of Negros Oriental.
On Feb. 28, all the councilors checked out of the hotel, and most of them took the flight home to Dumaguete.
The councilor, who has been tested positive of CoVid, transferred to his sibling’s house in barangay Greenhills in San Juan, where he stayed there until March 1.
Upon his return to Tayasan, he attended the municipal council session, and a recognition day program of a school in the town.
He developed symptoms of the CoViD-19 a few days later.
“We have the gut feeling that he contracted the virus in Greenhills,” Sagarbarria said, adding that he pities his fellow councilors who fear they may have contracted the virus also.
“I assured them that if they had contracted the virus, they would already be manifesting the symptoms,” he said.
Because of this incident, many councilors, he said, have been chided for bringing the coronavirus into Negros Oriental.
“That is unfair. That [spread] is out of our control,” Sagarbarria said.
All councilors nationwide have been appraised of the situation, and are willing to extend support to their fellow Councilor who is in the hospital. (Gene Turco)
