“We have not received any visitors at all,” Gentle Hands Inc. executive director says
(Eagle News) — The agency managing the orphanage where 111 children tested positive for COVID-19 denied the virus came from an asymptomatic person who visited the orphanage, as claimed in some media reports.
Charity Graff, executive director of Gentle Hands Inc., said “we have not received any visitors at all, due to the fact that some of the children are immunocompromised and we have prohibited non-members of the staff from going inside the facility.”
She said they “have followed strict health protocols beyond the minimum to protect each and every staff and child” and “have actually been quarantined for 540 days.”
“While it is true that several individuals have tested positive in our facility, the source of the infection is still being traced,” she said.
As for the patients, she said no patient “is suffering from respiratory distress.”
“In the discussion with the Quezon City Government, we were directed not to disclose the situation publicly, and we have faithfully complied with this directive. However, recent inaccurate news, made without verification with us, have left us no choice but to publicly clarify matters,” she said.
“We are very concerned because we are a child caring agency and we have exerted all efforts to protect the privacy of our children,” she added.
In announcing that the children tested positive for the virus, a press release from the QC government quoted Dr. Rolando Cruz, City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) chief, as saying that an asymptomatic adult supposedly visited the orphanage in Barangay Bagumbuhay and unknowingly brought the virus.