MANILA - The Supreme Court will be closing all courts in the National Capital Region as well as other areas under enhanced community quarantine and modified enhanced community quarantine for two weeks as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
According to Administrative Circular No. 42-2020, issued by Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta Sunday, all courts in said areas will be "physically closed to all court users" from August 3 to 14, and will only be reached through their hotline numbers, email addresses and/or social media accounts as posted in the Supreme Court Website.
Raffle of cases in all courts shall proceed electronically.
The three divisions of the Supreme Court as well as the Court en banc, will also hold their sessions online through videoconferencing.
Essential offices of the Supreme Court, meanwhile, will operate in-court with a skeleton staff.
The Philippines has 103,185 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday as 5,032 more cases were confirmed.
An expert from the University of the Philippines warned that at this rate, the country will have more than 150,000 cases by the end of August.
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