Coronavirus: Manny Pacquiao Exposed To COVID-19 Infected Person, Asked To Self-Isolate

Boxing icon Manny Pacquiao could be at risk of acquiring the Coronavirus disease. The eight-division world champion is reportedly asked by officials in his Barangay – the most basic unit of society in the Philippines – to keep himself and his family at home for self-quarantine after he got exposed to a person confirmed to be positive for the virus.

Pacquiao, a Senator in the country, hosted an event at his residence in Barangay Dasmarinas, Makati City which was attended by several government officials last March 4. One of those who attended was his fellow legislator Koko Pimentel, who, on Wednesday, was confirmed to have acquired COVID-19.

Upon learning the said incident, barangay chairman Rossanna Hwang immediately sent a letter addressed to the Filipino sports icon, asking him to initiate isolation for his family as she labeled the 41-year-old as a “person under monitoring”.

"For your own family and household's safety, please have yourself self-quarantined, STAY HOME. No one including any of your household can come out," Hwang said in the letter, per ESPN, adding that the order was upon the request of residents, mostly medical professionals, who likewise live in the same close community. "This was the recommendation of doctors from Makati Medical Center who (are) also (residents) here, and by the Makati Health Department. Many of your colleagues in Senate have been identified to be COVID positive. Therefore, you have to be quarantined at your own house. Please be a model example."

The number of cases positive for the Coronavirus continues to rise in the Philippines, but the Department of Health insisted that the sudden increase is expected in relation to the gradual rise in the number of testing kits.

Pacquiao was one of the notable public servants who initiated donations in aid of health care frontliners in the Philippines, especially in the metro where most of the cases congest. Due to his generous response to the current health crisis, he has been commended by citizens of his country where the government, in general, is put under extreme scrutiny.

The Philippines is still under an enhanced community quarantine with 803 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 31 of which have recovered while 54 have died.