Duterte wishes Trumps’ ‘speedy recovery’

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and US President Donald Trump share a light moment prior to the bilateral meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on November 13, 2017. ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has extended well wishes to US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania after they tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

In a press briefing from Boracay, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this remark after the White House announced on Friday that Trump will be hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

“Malapit na magkaibigan ang ating Presidente at si President Trump. Ang mensahe po ng Presidente (The President and President Trump are close friends. The President’s message is) he wishes President Trump and his wife first lady Melania a full and speedy recovery,” he said.

Last April, Duterte and Trump spoke over the phone to discuss bilateral cooperation against Covid-19.

“It was initiated by the US government. It lasted for about 18 minutes. It was cordial and it was about bilateral collaboration on Covid-19 but beyond that I have no authority to divulge any further details,” Roque said on April 20.

Trump’s positive Covid-19 diagnosis makes him one of the growing number of world leaders and high-profile politicians to have contracted the virus.

He has repeatedly claimed that the pandemic would soon end.

One of Trump’s closest advisers, Hope Hicks, had also tested positive.

Hicks had accompanied him to the debate with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday and a campaign rally on Wednesday.

Biden, who tested negative for the virus on Friday, also sent “prayers for the health and safety” of the Trumps.

Two US senators and more than a dozen members of Congress have also contracted Covid-19.