SENATE President Vicente Sotto III yesterday said government officials should strictly observe the 14-day quarantine requirement set by the Inter Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) and the Department of Health (DOH) after returning from their out of the country trips.
“Dapat kung magiging mahigpit tayo sa mga kababayan natin, kailangan mas mahigpit tayo sa mga government officials. ‘Yun ang sa akin (If we are strict with our countrymen, we also need to be strict with government officials. That’s my take on that),” Sotto said.
Sotto made the statement after he suspended yesterday’s session until Monday morning to allow senators and employees to go on self-quarantine following their exposure to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who tested positive for the second time for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Lorenzana was physically present at the Senate session hall on Tuesday where he was one of the resource persons during the discussions on the proposed P297.1 billion budget of the Department of National Defense and its attached agencies.
Lorenzana learned he was positive of the virus on Wednesday.
Sotto said the suspension of the sessions would give time to the people, including senators, who may have had close contact with Lorenzana to go on self-quarantine and have themselves tested if they have been infected.
Also, he added, this will give authorities ample time to disinfect the Senate building, particularly the session hall where the budget deliberations were held.
“So, we have postponed until Monday so that gives us time for semi-quarantine for those who would think they had a brush with Secretary Lorenzana — one way or another — during his visit to the Senate (last) Tuesday,” Sotto said during the weekly Meet the Press forum with Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
The defense secretary returned to the country last Sunday (November 14) after a visit to Spain and Poland where he met his counterparts.
As a standard procedure, Sotto said Lorenzana underwent a swab test upon arrival which yielded a negative result.
Sotto said he learned that Lorenzana submitted himself to a swab test on Tuesday after attending the budget deliberations and the positive result came out Wednesday.
Lorenzana’s appearance at the Senate coincided with the visit of the National Assembly of Hungary led by Deputy Speaker Istvan Jakad as part of efforts to strengthen inter-parliamentary cooperation and friendship between the Philippines and Hungary.
Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said he is afraid that some of the Hungarian delegates may have been exposed to Lorenzana.
Sen. Joel Villanueva said that he, Sotto, Zubiri, and Senators Francis Tolentino, Ronald dela Rosa, Nancy Binay, and Juan Edgardo Angara had close contacts with Lorenzana.
They have all underwent antigen tests which yielded negative results but will have to do swab test (RT-PCR) five days after their exposure to Lorenzana.
Sotto said he has ordered stricter measures for those who wish to enter the Senate building either as visitors, guests, and resource persons.
Visitors would now be required to present a negative RT-PCR test result taken 24 hours prior to the visit.
Also, visitors will be required to present a medical certificate indicating they are not showing symptoms of COVID-19 for the last 24 hours before their visit, and present a vaccination card.
The requirements must be submitted to the medical staff on duty on the day of the visit, and the names of the visitors, guests, and resource persons must be submitted to the Office of the Senate Sgt-At-Arms one day before their scheduled visit.
Last year, the Senate also experienced a similar situation during the budget deliberations when TESDA chief Sec. Isidro Lapeña tested positive for COVID-19 a day after he also attended a budget discussion in the Senate.
Sotto said the postponement of the budget discussions will result to at least a four-day delay in their schedule.
“Now because of what happened, we will try on Monday to finish everything until the wee hours of the morning… We were supposed to propose amendments next week. We will have to hurry,” he said.
Congress is scheduled to go on a holiday break starting on December 16. Sotto said the Senate will have to extend its sessions if they still have not finished the budget bill before the holiday break.
He said the original schedule should be that by December 17 both leaders of Congress have signed the budget bill and come up with a revised copy of the measure on December 21.
But with the delay, the signing could be on December 21.
Catanduanes Gov. Joseph Cua yesterday said the province’s current Alert Level 4 status is due to their high healthcare utilization rate and high number of infections from the Delta variant of COVID-19.
“We have 82 percent utilization of the hospitals, that’s the reason,” Cua said during the Laging Handa press briefing. The province has three COVID-19 referral hospitals — the provincial hospital and two small private hospitals.
“Another factor is the Delta cases. At present we have 27 confirmed Delta variant active cases. Those are the reasons why we are under Alert Level 4,” said Cua, referring to the healthcare utilization and Delta cases.
The province is the only province, among the many areas adopting the alert level system of quarantine, with the highest alert level. The province shifted to Alert 4, from modified enhanced community quarantine, last Wednesday.
Cua said most of the COVID-19 infections in the province are mild cases, thus those infected are merely brought to isolation facilities.
“But if its severe, that’s the problem because we have limited wards, ICU (intensive care unit) beds for severe cases,” said Cua.
Cua said there is no shortage of oxygen in the province, though he said their buffer stock is slowly running out.
The governor said some areas in the province are under granular lockdown but could not immediately give figures. Affected households get food packs from the provincial government.
Cua said the province only allows essential travels. He said people on non-essential travel will have to present a negative RT-PCR test before they are allowed entry to the province. — With Victor Reyes and Christian Oineza
Also, Cua appealed for more vaccine allocation from the national government.
He said only around 65,500 of the province’s eligible population are fully vaccinated, while around 10,000 others have received the first dose of two-dose vaccines.
Cua said the province has been administering vaccines at a daily average of 4,470 recently.
In San Juan, the city government yesterday issued guidelines for contact sports held in the city. — With Victor Reyes
