Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Wednesday said visitors will not be allowed entry to the Senate premises for three weeks beginning August 15 after three senators tested positive for COVID-19 in just a week.
“We beg for the indulgence of the public. We just want to be safe; we have members and staff with comorbidities,” Zubiri said.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano first tested positive on Aug. 3, followed by Senators Imee Marcos on Aug. 8 and Cynthia Villar on Aug. 9, prompting the Senate leadership to conduct a caucus with the medical team on Wednesday.
Zubiri said all senators during the caucus agreed to tighten health and safety protocols.
He said not all visitors would be allowed entry unless they are resource persons in the committee hearings and regular sessions.
“We’ll receive no guests for three weeks except for resource persons which will be limited to two per agency or organization. The others could participate remotely,” Zubiri said.
Those who will be permitted to enter must present negative RT-PCR test results taken in the last 24 hours.
The senators also agreed to limit elevator capacity to only five passengers.
“According to the DOH and OCTA Research… The cases will peak in the next few weeks. So maybe we could give ourselves a bit of a safety net for the next few weeks at least in the Senate,” Zubiri said.