Malacañang on Monday said President Rodrigo Duterte’s health is “fine,” as the chief executive volunteered to go into “perpetual isolation” after Interior Secretary Eduardo Año tested positive with COVID-19 who attended a cabinet meeting with the President.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque has reported that President Duterte has been undergoing regular tests to make sure he did not contract the deadly disease after meeting with some members of his cabinet and Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) in Davao last week.
“The president is in perpetual isolation because no one can come close to him,” Roque said.
“Whenever we meet with him there’s a velvet rope that keeps him at least six feet away from everyone else. No one can really come close to the president.
“He is in perpetual isolation in the sense that PSG has done a very good job in making sure that no one really comes close to the president,” he added.
Roque said the two officials were technically in the same room in Davao during Duterte’s address last week, but he had assured no contact was made between the officials.
“He does undergo regular PCR [polymerase chain reaction] tests. He complains about the discomfort of the swab tests,” Roque said in a televised press briefing.
“And I think it’s also a requirement of Davao City Mayor Sara whenever he goes back in Davao so he complies with the requirements of the local government,” he added.
However, Roque later said that “perpetual isolation” was only a figure of speech he used “to highlight the prudence exercised by the PSG in safeguarding the physical well-being of the President in this challenging time of COVID-19.”
Duterte’s previous meeting with Ano along with his other Cabinet members was on August 10.