FILE PHOTO: Unvaccinated individuals may ride public transport without fear of being shooed away or offloaded as the “no vaccine, no ride” policy is lifted from February 1 to 15 when Metro Manila comes under COVID-19 Alert Level 2. —RICHARD A. REYES
MANILA, Philippines — It is still too early and too drastic to downgrade Metro Manila to COVID-19 Alert Level 1 this month, an expert said Monday.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said Metro Manila should stay under Alert Level 2 for now because transmission of COVID-19 infections is still high.
“In my opinion, we need to stay in Alert Level 2. It’s too early and I think it’s too drastic to change to a lower alert level like Alert Level 1,” he said in a Laging Handa public briefing.
“Tingnan muna natin in the next two weeks kung medyo maganda ang palo ng mga kaso natin, mas mababa na, then let’s see,” he added.
(Let’s see in the next two weeks if the COVID-19 situation would be better — if cases would be lower, then let’s see.)
He said the government should be vigilant in monitoring the number of COVID-19 infections to decide on alert levels.
“Mataas pa rin ang kaso na nakikita natin, mataas pa rin ang hawaan and we need to be vigilant about these numbers, dapat hindi lang tayo dire-diretso na magbaba ng alert level,” Solante said.
(The cases we are seeing are still high and we need to be vigilant about these numbers. We should not just deescalate alert levels.)
He reminded the public to continue to comply with minimum public health standards, get vaccinated, and only go out when necessary to avoid the spread of COVID-19.
Metro Manila is currently under Alert Level 2 until February 15. The government is set to decide whether to retain the current level or downgrade the national capital region to the least restrictive Alert Level 1.
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