KIDAPAWAN CITY: A 20-year-old nephew of Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Secretary Emmanuel Piñol had tested positive for the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease, but is asymptomatic and physically well.

Reports about the infection of Shane Matthew Piñol spread widely via the traditional and social media here sans his name, but his uncle Sec. Piñol opted to give his identity and others details about the test result ostensibly to inspire other individuals in coming out openly to undergo proper containment protocols.

“A young member of the Piñol family has tested positive for COVID-19 but he remained asymptomatic and strong,” Secretary Piñol said in a statement on June 25.

He believed Shane acquired the virus in his frontline works in helping shuttle North Cotabato residents stranded in the community quarantine campaign measures.

Shane, son of former Board Member Socrates Piñol, is employed under the Office of the North Cotabato governor and has been involved in the provincial government’s Sagip Cotabateño program bringing home stranded natives of his province.

Shane’s father said the young man submitted himself for isolation right after the tests that showed he was positive for SARS Cov2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Board Member Piñol said his son has been living alone in a house near the provincial government capitol compound here since he started working for the provincial government.

He was not in contact with other members of the family, not even during Father’s Day gathering on Sunday (June 22), he added.

Shane turned 21 on June 28 while on a government designated isolation facility in North Cotabato, said his uncle, who posted the social media some photos showing the patient doing routine physical exercises.

The MinDA chief said the tracing of all people that his nephew had come in contact with had started and that Shane himself had furnished the names of all people he had mingled with during the rescue missions he conducted.

ALI G. MACABALANG