Some personnel of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) have been infected by the highly transmissible Covid-19 Omicron variant, necessitating the temporary closure of 25 consular offices and mall sites, including the main office at the Aseana Business Park in Parañaque City.
In a news statement, DFA said the operations of the consular offices (CO) in La Union, NCR East in SM Megamall, NCR North in Robinson’s Novaliches, Quezon City and the temporary off-site passport services (TOPS) also in Robinson’s Novaliches were temporarily suspended starting Monday until January 20.
Last week, four COs and mall sites at SM Manila, Robinson’s Lipa, Tuguegarao and Robinson’s Magnolia were also closed for disinfection.
Aside from passport application, these COs also handle Apostille Certification (“Red Ribbon”) applications.
“Too many of our people at consular and TOPS falling sick,” Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said in his tweet.
Starting Wednesday, 17 more COs and TOPs that will be closed down for eight days
• DFA Office of Consular Affairs at Aseana Business Park, Parañaque City
• CO NCR Central
• CO NCR Northeast
• CO NCR South
• CO NCR West
• CO Antipolo
• CO Angeles
• CO Baguio
• CO Dasmariñas
• CO Iloilo
• CO Lucena
• CO Malolos
• CO San Pablo
• TOPS Newport Mall
• TOPS Robinsons Las Piñas
• TOPS Robinsons San Pedro Laguna
• TOPS SM Manila
Consular operations for these 25 consular offices and mall sites will resume on January 21.
Passport applicants who were originally scheduled during the days of suspended operations will receive e-mail for their new schedule.
DFA Undersecretary Brigido Dulay Jr. said emergency cases will be accepted during the suspension of operations and have assigned a downsized work force who will process these.
“Our people will continue with back-end operations while isolated. Apologies to everyone. Omicron sucks,” Dulay tweeted.
The DFA recorded 22-percent positivity rate among consular personnel who were tested, excluding those who reported having flu-like symptoms. “If we add close contacts, that is a large number of people who are advised to isolate,” Assistant Secretary Eduardo Meñez, chief of public diplomacy office, said.
Locsin said he intends to pull out DFA personnel from other offices doing diplomacy work and assign them to these consular offices.
“We’ll deploy more people out of diplomatic work; there is no more diplomacy these days unless you are a world power of which there are only seven with India and Pakistan. The rest are poseurs without puissance,” he tweeted Sunday.