SAN JOSE, Antique – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in this capital town is temporarily closed for disinfection until Wednesday, Sept. 22.
Atty. Ian Lee Ananoria, Comelec-Antique provincial supervisor, said they were informed that one of their municipal staff was a first layer contact of an index case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), while two others were second layer contacts.
The first layer contact, who was asymptomatic, reported to work on Sept. 15, so he mingled with the two other employees who became his second layer contacts.
The three of them are now undergoing14-day home quarantine.
Ananoria said this is the first time that a municipal election office in Antique had been closed during the voters’ registration period as a result of COVID-19 contact tracing.
he is asking the Antique Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on COVID-19 and the municipal IATF in the 18 Antique towns to assist the Comelec during the last day of the voters’ registration and even during the filing of the certificates of candidacy (COC) from Oct. 1 to 8 in ensuring the strict implementation of health protocols among registrants and candidates.
“As we had experienced in the past registrations, there were lots of voters who came to register on the last day so we would like to request for assistance from the IATF to deploy police personnel and barangay officials to assist us implement the Covid-19 health protocol,” he said. (PNA)
