Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire (Screengrab from DOH Facebook page)
MANILA, Philippines — Pilot face-to-face classes may be conducted in Metro Manila if the capital region is placed under Alert Level 2, where COVID-19 transmission and health care utilization is low, the Department of Health (DOH) said Thursday.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the standard for areas to be able to conduct in-person classes is that they have to be low or minimal risk for COVID-19 to ensure the safety of students and teachers.
So far, 59 schools are slated to conduct the pilot run of face-to-face classes in the country, none of which are located in the National Capital Region (NCR).
“Dapat nasa low or minimal risk ang mga areas na isasama natin para ating masiguro ang kaligtasan ng ating mga guro at ating mga estudyante,” Vergeire said in a Palace briefing.
(The areas should be low or minimal risk for COVID-19 to be able to conduct in-person classes so that we could ensure the safety of our children and our teachers.)
“If NCR will be able na bumaba na ang mga kaso, bumaba ang hospital utilization at napunta na sa Alert Level 2, makakasama na doon,” she added.
(If NCR will have a lower number of cases and hospital utilization rate, and be placed under Alert Level 2, it may be included in the list of areas that can conduct in-person classes.)
Vergeire, however, clarified that the risk classification need not be community- or region-wide.
The government may allow one school in a barangay or a small area where the risk is low even though the whole of NCR is placed under Alert Level 3 or higher.
But this is still under study, she added.
“Maaari nating isama ‘yun pero sa ngayon pinag-aaralan lang muna maigi. Mag-uusap uli ang DOH at Department of Education ukol dito,” the Health official said.
(We can include that but for now we are still studying it. The DOH and DepEd will discuss this matter again.)
The pilot in-person classes is set to start on Nov. 15 and will run until January 31 next year.
Metro Manila is currently under Alert Level 4 until Oct. 15 as the government extended its pilot implementation of its new alert level system.