CSC suspends eligibility exam on March 15

MANILA, Philippines — The first set of Civil Service Eligibility exams for 2020 will not push through on Sunday, March 15, due to the rising threat of COVID-19.

This announcement, which first appeared on the Civil Service Commission (CSC) Facebook page, was confirmed by Commissioner Aileen Lizada on Tuesday afternoon.

CSC said the suspension of eligibility exams was in compliance with President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of a state of public health emergency throughout the country.

“In compliance to Proclamation No. 922 signed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte declaring a State of Public Health Emergency throughout the Philippines and calling for the implementation of urgent, critical measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) suspends the conduct of the 15 March 2020 Career Service Examination-Pen and Paper Test (CSE-PPT) nationwide until further notice,” CSC said.

“The CS exams were supposed to be held in 66 testing locations nationwide with an estimated total of 295,711 individuals nationwide registered to take the test. Of the figure, an estimated 253,811 will take the Professional Level of the exam while an estimated 41,900 will attempt to hurdle the Subprofessional Level,” it added.

Previously, CSC opted not to suspend the eligibility test and just urged participants to take precautionary measures like frequent hand washing, wearing of masks, and foregoing the tests if an examinee exhibits COVID-19 symptoms.

However, there were no recorded COVID-19 cases in the Philippines when CSC made that announcement contrary to the country’s 33 cases as of Tuesday afternoon.

READ: DOH says number of coronavirus case now 33

“Thus, it is necessary to suspend the exams as a preemptive health measure to mitigate the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases and to support the national and local government units in undertaking appropriate response and measures in a timely manner to curtail and eliminate the COVID-19 threat,” CSC said.

As of Tuesday morning, there are 112,747 cases of COVID-19 and 4,009 deaths due to disease mostly from China. COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus that first emerged in China’s city of Wuhan in Hubei province in late 2019. The novel coronavirus was named SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.

KGA

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