House Secretary General Reginald Velasco (Contributed photo)


All invited guests and participants to this year's State of the Nation Address (SONA) will no longer have to undergo antigen testing for Covid-19 in order to attend the event at the House of Representatives. Thus, said House Secretary General Reginald Velasco on what is arguably the single biggest change in the upcoming conduct of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s annual speech. "We have been informed na ili-lift na yun, wala nang antigen requirement (We have been informed that it will be lifted, there will be no more antigen requirement). Even the health declaration, we will forego that," Velasco told House reporters in a chance interview Tuesday, July 4. "So kayong mga media, hindi na namin irerequire yun (Even on you, the media, we will no longer require that)," he said. Based on the capacity seating of the House plenary where Marcos will deliver his speech this coming July 24, the attendees this year could breach the 2,000-mark. "Kasi ito, almost back to normal eh (It's because things are almost back to normal). In fact the Department of Health (DOH) secretary has recommended the lifting of all the said protocols in the end of the pandemic emergency," said the House official, who earlier took part in the 1st Inter-Agency Coordination Meeting for SONA 2023 that same afternoon.
Before anyone can access the plenary hall or any of the key offices within the House of Representatives, they are made to undergo antigen testing at least once a week. A negative test result, coupled with the filling out of health declaration forms per visit, gives the person access to these places in the House. This set-up was observed during Marcos' first SONA on July 23, 2022. But for this year, Velasco bared that the minimum requirement for the attendees would simply be their vaccine card of the proof of their primary series (first two shots) of the Covid-19 vaccine. A booster card that shows a person's subsequent shots won't be needed, he noted. Velasco also said the use of face masks would be made optional. He said SONA attendees who are unvaccinated or have symptoms of Covid-19 will be required to produce a negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test result 48 hours before the event. Asked if the lifting of the antigen requirement for House visitors would be sustained moving forward beyond SONA day, Velasco said the matter would be studied.