More consular offices around the country will be temporarily closed until Jan. 20 as more personnel from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) contracted coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
A total of 23 offices, including various temporary off-site passport services (TOPS), were affected by the temporary suspension of operations.
According to the DFA, the operation of the sites will be temporarily suspended starting Monday, Jan. 10 until Jan. 20 "due to the steep rise in COVID-19 cases among its personnel."
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Brigido Dulay, there will be skeleton teams at all sites while the rest of the workforce will work remotely during the temporary suspension of operations.
"Starting Wednesday, Jan. 12th until Thursday, Jan. 20th, our consular offices and TOPS will temporarily suspend operations. Skeleton crew to process only emergency cases. Our people will continue with back-end operations while isolated. Apologies to everyone. Omicron sucks," Dulay said on Twitter on Monday.
Affected consular offices include those in La Union, National Capital Region (NCR) East, NCR North, Robinsons Novaliches, Aseana Business Park, Paranaque City, NCR Central, NCR Northeast, NCR South, NCR West, Antipolo, Angeles, Baguio. Dasmarinas, Iloilo, Lucena, Malolos, San Pablo, and TOPS in Newport Mall, Robinsons Las Pinas, Robinsons San Pedro, Laguna, SM Manila, SM Mall of Asia, and SM North EDSA.
During the temporary suspension of operations, the DFA said no passport or Apostille applications will be processed or released. Operations shall resume on Jan. 21.
Affected applicants were told to direct any inquiries to the Consular Office where the application was filed using the contact details provided by the department on its website.
It also informed the public that their phone lines will be attended to from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday only.
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