HOW WILL THEY KISS? Makati Mayor Abby Binay presides over a mass wedding at the city’s Washington Sycip Park on Tuesday. She and the couples are wearing masks and face shields as protection against the new coronavirus. The government’s coronavirus response task force has decreed the use of face shields in public, long after Filipinos have turned to using the plastic face coverings to avoid getting COVID-19. —LYN RILLON
Aside from protective masks, people should now wear face shields whenever they go out, Malacañang said on Tuesday.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the mandatory wearing of face shields was one of the recommendations the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases adopted during its meeting on Monday.
The face shield regulation is part of measures to lower the transmission of the new coronavirus, especially during the holiday season, Roque said.
He said Filipinos would not have difficulty complying with the regulation since everyone was supposed to wear a face shield when going to work, shopping mall, church and taking public transportation.
A face shield costs as low as P5 nowadays, he said.
Added protection
“It’s a reality that everyone of us owns a face shield. The new rule only is that we just wear it when going out of the house. So I don’t think it is an issue of cost anymore because I doubt if there’s a person who has no face shield. So let’s just say it is added protection and it is here to stay until we are vaccinated,” Roque said.
Studies have also shown, he said, that there is a lower chance of people contracting the virus when they wear face shields.
Roque said the task force approved only full-face shields. He did not say, however, whether wearing half-face shields was considered a violation of public health rules.
He said the penalty for not wearing face shields would be determined by the local governments, which would amend ordinances or issue new executive orders requiring the wearing of face shields.
On Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,135 additional coronavirus infections, raising the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country to 451,839.
Rizal province recorded the most number of new infections, 117, followed by Bulacan (84), Quezon City (71), Isabela (39), and Laguna (38).
The DOH said 173 more patients had recovered, pushing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 418,867. But the death toll rose to 8,812 with the deaths of 56 more patients.
Isabela quarantine
The deaths and recoveries left the country with 24,160 active cases, of which 84.7 percent were mild, 6.4 percent asymptomatic, 0.30 percent moderate, 2.9 percent severe, and 5.7 percent critical.
Roque said the task force also recommended the placing of Isabela province, excluding Santiago City, under general community quarantine until the end of December. The new quarantine category was recommended by the provincial government after a spike in daily attack rate and two-week daily growth rate of COVID-19 cases in Isabela.
The task force also approved in-person qualifying examination of insurance agents in areas that under general community quarantine, subject to health and safety rules to be issued by the Insurance Commission.
Also approved by the task force was the request of the Philippine Olympics Committee to allow athletes participating in the Tokyo Olympics to resume training under a “bubble-type setting” in coordination with the regional task force and the local government where the training will take place.
The task force also approved provincial bus operation on point-to-point routes that would be approved by the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and the local governments, with provisions for stopovers and transit terminals. —WITH A REPORT FROM DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN INQ