Mayor’s order: Face shields can be taken off in Cebu City

Passersby with and without a face shield walk past an artwork of a health worker wearing a face mask and eye shields in Recto Ave., Manila. Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso has signed Executive Order No. 42 declaring the use of face shields as non-mandatory except in hospital setting, medical clinics and medical facilities. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON.

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — The use of face shields is no longer mandatory in Cebu City, except in medical facilities and enclosed public utility jeepneys, as cases of COVID-19 here have continued to drop.

This was announced through a directive issued by acting Mayor Michael Rama upon the recommendation of the Cebu City Multisectoral Convergence Group.

“It was confirmed that face shields were usually not properly worn but just fashionably displayed as headgear for compliance purposes,” Rama said in an order issued Nov. 9.

Cases dropping

“The mandatory wearing of face shields is hereby lifted except while inside the hospitals, clinics, diagnostic laboratories, other medical facilities, public utility vehicles, except traditional public utility jeepneys with open windows and ventilation,” he added.

Rama said there was no need to require people to wear face shields in malls since “these are not crowded places.” The policy on the mandatory wearing of face masks, however, stays. The national pandemic response task force, as of Wednesday, had yet to release a policy on the use of face shields in the country.

Cebu City has loosened its restrictions after the number of COVID-19 cases declined.

Department of Health records showed that Cebu City had 272 active cases as of Nov. 9. Since the start of the pandemic, the city had logged 41,144 cases with 39,381 recoveries, and 1,491 deaths.

In Cebu province, cases of COVID-19 also significantly dropped in a span of three months. Data from the provincial health office showed that the number of active COVID-19 cases in Cebu dwindled from 5,100 in August to only 198 on Nov. 7.

Only 12 of 474 COVID-dedicated beds in the province’s hospitals were being used, with an occupancy rate of about 2 percent. In the province’s isolation centers, only 17 of 2,343 beds were occupied.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia attributed the downtrend to policies enforced in the province like proper ventilation on public transport and distribution of vitamins to residents and health workers.

Garcia said the government’s vaccination drive also helped slow down the spread of the virus.