Senate suspends sessions until January 24, 2022 due to COVID-19 surge

The Senate has suspended its plenary sessions until January 24 due to the high number of reported COVID-19 cases in the chamber, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Monday.

“We want to allow the [COVID-19] surge [in] the Senate to simmer down. Too many positives and in quarantine both with the secretariat and [senators’] staff,” he said in a Viber message to reporters.

Sotto said the Senate would only allow employees needed in the upper chamber’s operations and the personnel from the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms to enter the Senate building.

Despite the suspension of sessions, Sotto said the committee hearings and the bicameral conference meetings would push through as scheduled.

In a separate Viber message to reporters, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said there are 88 active COVID-19 cases in the Senate and there are 196 staffers who are undergoing home quarantine.

“Medyo kulang ang personnel natin sa Senado (We are lacking manpower in the Senate). Our Medical head suggested that we continue with the work holiday to allow the staff to recover,” he said.

Meanwhile, in an advisory issued by the office of Senate Secretary Myra Villarica, she said the chamber has suspended work from January 18 to 23 to give way to the thorough sanitation and disinfection of the building and premises to curb the further spread of the virus.

Villarica reminded the Senate employees to make themselves available to answer inquiries and render assistance to their immediate supervisors as they will operate under a work from home arrangement.

Committee hearings, technical working group and other meetings will be conducted virtually.

Further, the Senate employees were reminded to refrain from making non-essential trips and report symptoms and exposure to suspected COVID-19 patients to authorities, including the Senate’s Medical and Dental Bureau, as well as their respective head of office.                                             

Both houses of Congress  just resumed session on Monday after a four-week holiday break.

The Senate and the House of Representatives are scheduled to adjourn sessions again on February 4 to give way for the campaign period for the 2022 national and local elections,

On Monday, the Philippines has registered 37,070 fresh COVID-19 cases, bringing the total caseload to 3,242,374. —NB, GMA News