HEALTH Secretary Francisco Duque III said postponement on areas with high cases of Covid-19 is possible.
At Laging Handa briefing on Friday, the health secretary said “That is always a possibility, but we will stick to our alert leveling system. Halimbawa kung Alert level 2 tayo yung mga public spaces yung mga lugar meron tayong limitasyon…yun lang papahitulutan.”
(That is always a possibility but we will stick to our alert leveling system. For example if we are Alert level 2 the public spaces in those areas will have limited capacity.)
Duque said the alert level will also depend on the three metric system —increase in two-week growth rate, average daily attack rate, and health care utilization rate.
“Ngayon kung ang tanong possible ba magkaroon ng postponement, oo syempre possible pa rin kung talagang masyadong mataas ang sipa ng mga kaso sa mga piling lugar,” he said.
(Now if the question is is it possible to have a postponement, yes of course it is still possible if there will be an increase in cases and if it is really high in those areas.)
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner George Garcia said the postponement of Eleksyon 2022 may only happen in situations of terrorism, violence, destruction of election paraphernalia, and force majeure or unforeseen circumstances.
According to Ivan Mayrina’s report on “24 Oras”, Garcia said that the Comelec would study if the spike in COVID-19 cases may be considered as force majeure.
Duque advised voters who will have symptoms on election day to stay at home to prevent spread of infection.
“Pag-uusapan yan meron pa tayong dalawang linggo at kalahati bago ang eleksyon so patuloy nakikipagugnayan ang DOH at Comelec para linawin itong mga katanungan,” Duque said.
“Tama naman yung mga tanong na ito bang mga may sakit at sintomas pagbubutohin ba sila,” he added.
(We still have two and a half weeks before the election, and the DOH and the Comelec continue to work together to clarify these questions. These questions are correct, will those who are sick and have symptoms be allowed to vote?)
“Ako sa tingin ko dyan dapat hindi, dahil ang laging sinasabi natin ang policy natin to isolate kung mayroon kang symptoms, so salungat yan sa ating policy kung sa tingin natin na kahit may mga symptoms pwedeng bumoto,” Duque said.
