DOH studying Año’s virus reinfection

MANILA, Philippines — Saying there is no evidence yet of reinfection with COVID-19, Department of Health (DOH) experts are studying the case of Interior Secretary Eduardo Año who again tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

In a press briefing, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire yesterday said health officials met with the Technical Advisory Council as soon as Año announced that he was again positive for SARS-CoV-2 over the weekend.

“We’re getting the details from the lab where he was tested. We are getting the specific CT values, which would show if it was really contamination or he was really positive,” she added.

Last Sunday, Año confirmed that he started experiencing flu-like symptoms such as body aches and sore throat on Aug. 13. He got tested and again turned up positive results for COVID.

He was the first Cabinet member to get infected in March.

In previous cases of COVID-19 patients who have recovered, the DOH explained that the realtime-polymerase chain reaction is “very sensitive” that it could detect the “remnants” of the virus even months after infection.

According to Vergeire, experts are looking into Ano’s past history of being positive for COVID so that his previous case could be compared with his situation now.

She maintained that when Año was first infected, he was asymptomatic.

Vergeire, however, refused to say if Año’s case is a re-infection.

“Let’s not call it re-infection. That term is not yet accepted in the scientific community. The virus is new, this is novel and there’s no significant evidence on that,” she added.