MANILA, Philippines – A diplomat from the Philippines mission to United Nations (UN) has tested positive for the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) but is already “doing well,” the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Friday.
“Yes, one of our diplomats at the Philippine Mission to the UN in New York has tested positive for COVID. The necessary health and safety protocols have been implemented,” DFA Assistant Secretary Ed Meñez said Friday in a message to reporters.
DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said he already talked to the Philippines’ acting UN Ambassador Kira Azucena and assured that the patient is already doing well and is taking doctor-prescribed medicines.
The infected is doing well; she's young, spritely, smart and taking some doctor prescribed meds. Thank you. I just talked to Kira. https://t.co/lwb8VWtDz8
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) March 13, 2020
“The infected is doing well; she’s young, spritely, smart and taking some doctor prescribed meds. Thank you. I just talked to Kira,” Locsin said.
Azucena earlier reportedly said that Philippine Mission is in lockdown and that all its personnel was instructed to undergo self-quarantine.
The U.S. has so far recorded over 1,200 cases of COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus that first emerged in Wuhan, China late last year.
The World Health Organization (WHO) now considers COVID-19 a pandemic, which means the new viral illness is causing sustained outbreaks in multiple regions of the world.