The new Ayala Museum façade. Courtesy of ANCx
MANILA — The Ayala Museum and Filipinas Heritage Library announced Thursday that it will temporarily close amid the new wave of COVID-19 cases.
The Makati City venues “decided to voluntarily suspend operations” starting January 7 until January 16 “for the safety of both our guests and staff given the current COVID-19 surge in the country.”
Booked tickets that fall during that period will be re-scheduled, Ayala Museum said.
The dates that cover the closure may change, depending on government guidelines to be released in the coming days.
The newly renovated museum had just reopened in December after nearly two years of closure also due to the pandemic.
Metro Manila is currently under Alert Level 3, which still allows the operations of museums and libraries but with limited capacity.
Ayala Museum’s announcement came as the Philippines reported on Thursday its highest COVID-19 positivity rate at 36.9 percent, and a significant increase of 17,220 new cases.
The country also detected 29 more cases of the COVID-19 omicron variant, raising its total to 43. The highly transmissible variant is “assumed” to be the cause of the current wave of cases, the DOH earlier said.