Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia. | file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia tested negative of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Capitol announced.
Sugbo News, the provincial government’s media arm, posted on Wednesday, March 17, that Garcia’s real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test yielded negative of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
It reported that the governor underwent RT-PCR tests last March 16 as a requirement for “an out-of-town meeting with a very important person tonight.”
However, it did not disclose further details of Garcia’s itinerary.
Shortly before the Capitol disclosed Garcia’s RT-PCR test results, unofficial reports have been circulating in the past two weeks that she tested positive of the infection.
Reporters tried to verify such information from authorities but none responded. Garcia was also spotted attending and presiding over official meetings at the Capitol building in the last few days.
This is not the first time the governor made public her RT-PCR test results.
It can be recalled that Garcia was also the subject of similar rumors during the peak of the outbreak in 2020, prompting the Capitol to deny such reports by publishing her swab test results. / dcb