Visitors coming to the Senate will be required to submit a medical certificate clearing them from Covid-19 before they can enter the premises, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said during Wednesday’s session
Starting October 1, visitors will be required to furnish the Senate Office of the Sergeant-At-Arms with their medical certificate “24 hours in advance before coming over.”
Sotto said all visitors will be required to wear face shields aside from face masks, pursuant to a Pasay City ordinance. The Senate is in Pasay City.
Upon questioning from Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Sotto said the visitors and resource persons coming to the Senate must undergo a swab test first before they can acquire a medical certificate
“It is up to their physician. It is usually required by their physician before the physician will issue a medical certificate that a person is COVID-free,” Sotto.
The Senate made the rules amid the busy budget hearings in both chambers of Congress. Officials of different government agencies are required to attend the deliberations of their proposed budget for the next fiscal year.
Since the start of the pandemic, three senators, 16 Senate employees and 17 staffers of Senator Richard Gordon tested positive for COVID-19. Rommel F. Lopez