FILE PHOTO: Cabinet Secretary and acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has amended the metrics for determining the alert levels in different areas which will take effect on March 1, according to acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles. Highly urbanized cities and independent component cities shall be deescalated to alert level 1 upon meeting all of the following criteria: low to minimal risk case classification, total bed utilization rate of less than 50 percent, full vaccination of 70 percent of its target population, and full vaccination of 80 percent of its senior citizens. He also said the cutoff for the average daily attack rate should be less than six for low risk, six to 18 for moderate risk, and more than 18 for high risk. —LEILA B. SALAVERRIA