When the first famous personalities around the world announced themselves, or were announced, to have been infected by COVID-19, that hammered home the notion that the pandemic was one that played no favorites and affected everyone equally. Here in the Philippines the stories of celebrities who became statistics in the fight against COVID either caused grief if they died, hope if they recovered, or concern if they fight the disease to the present day. Sometimes some famous personalities would decide to hide that they had a brush with the pandemic, only breaking their silence after they have recovered from it.
This is, as told by Inquirer.net, the course of action taken by Raymond Bagatsing. The now-53-year-old actor only revealed in social media this past Thursday, April 22, that not only did he test positive for COVID-19 earlier in the month, but that he has since gotten better without much of the public knowing. Bagatsing posted on his Instagram page a sequence of lab results from a diagnostics laboratory in Makati, with the first confirming his COVID infection with the date at April 7. His short comment read, “2 weeks ago. 14 days to be exact.”
As expected, that initial Instagram post elicited comments from well-wishers praying for his swift recovery. They probably were caught by surprised when Bagatsing posted a follow-up the same day, with a second RT-PCR test result dated only this past Wednesday, April 21, indicating that the actor was finally COVID-negative. Batagsing was wordier in his second COVID-related post, thanking the commenters who wished him well and relating the days following his positive diagnosis. He initially doubted the first test result due to feeling fine, but his doctor suggested that he was asymptomatic, and that he undergo a 14-day quarantine before a second test, to be safe.
Raymond Bagatsing muses that he may have become vulnerable to COVID infection when he did following a period of not eating much, working out too much and overdependence of caffeine. He also noted that he only started feeling a wheeze in his breathing one week into his quarantine, but kept to a workout regimen and a diet including malunggay and moringga leaves. The actor remarks that one’s mental mindset regarding a disease could make his condition, should he catch, it better or worse. Overcoming anxiety with a strong belief can go hand in hand with healthy living and relaxation to recover from diseases like COVID.
Bagatsing recently came into some international prominence following the 2018 release of Star Cinema’s Holocaust film “Quezon’s Game.” For more up-to-date projects, he will be part of the Filipino-American TV series “Almost Paradise” episode on Sunday, April 25 (on Kapamilya Channel), as well as upcoming film “Nelia” with Winwyn Marquez.
Image courtesy of ABS-CBN News
Morgan Magazine 