An infectious disease expert on Monday, Oct. 18, discouraged face-to-face campaigning for the 2022 elections, as it feared to be a superspreader event.
In a public briefing, Dr. Edsel Salvana discouraged candidates from conducting face-to-face campaigning or election-related activities that can potentially turn into superspreader events.
"Kung maiiwasan natin yung mga potential superspreader events lalo na kung maramihan talaga ang mga tao, iwasan muna natin (If we can avoid potential superspreader events, especially if there are a lot of people, then let's avoid them)," Salvana, who is also a member of the Department of Health (DOH) Technical Advisory Group, said.
"Kasi bagamat binaba natin from alert level 4, nasa alert level 3 pa rin tayo, ibig sabihin wala pa tayo sa lebel na pwede nating sabihin na hindi na tataas yan or hindi pa madaling biglang umakyat yan dahil nung nagkaroon tayo ng superspreader event. Hindi pa po tayo dapat relax this time (Even though we went down from alert level 4, we're still at alert level 3, which means we are not yet at the level where we can say that our COVID-19 cases will no longer increase or will not suddenly go up because we had a superspreader event)," he added.
Based on the calendar activities for the May 9, 2022 national and local elections released by the Commission on Elections, the campaign period for national positions is from Feb. 8 to May 7, or 90 days before the scheduled elections.
Meanwhile, local candidates are allowed to campaign 45 days before the polls or starting from March 25 to May 7.