DILG: Vax cards not needed for entry to malls

By: Dexter Cabalza, Tina G. Santos - 3 years ago

FILE PHOTO: A passenger at MRT-3 shows a vaccine card issued by Caloocan City.

MANILA, Philippines — COVID-19 vaccination cards no longer need to be presented to enter malls in areas under alert level 1, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Thursday.

DILG spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, however, clarified that vaccination cards were still required in establishments inside malls considered as 3Cs (closed spaces, crowded areas, and close contact activities).

“It is only required at the exact 3Cs establishment inside the mall, but not necessarily at the entrance of the mall,” he explained.

Under the latest Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases guidelines issued on February 27, proof of vaccination shall be required only for establishments listed as 3Cs.

But some malls, especially in Metro Manila—one of the 39 areas in the country placed under the least restrictive alert level 1 from March 1-15—have been asking the public to show their vaccination cards at the entrance.

Meanwhile, several highly urbanized cities in the Visayas and Mindanao regions are currently at low-risk classification from COVID-19, according to independent pandemic monitor OCTA Research.

As of March 2, Butuan, Cotabato City, Davao City, General Santos City, Iligan and Zamboanga City are now classified low risk for COVID-19, while Cagayan de Oro remained at moderate risk, said OCTA Research fellow Guido David.

He noted that the reproduction number in all of the six areas are “very low,” ranging from 0.08 to 0.33.

Nationwide, the Department of Health reported 989 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the second straight day the tally fell below 1,000.

The new infections were higher than Wednesday’s 866. It did not include figures from five laboratories that failed to submit data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System.

The positivity rate was 4.5 percent, still below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended level of 5 percent, and slightly lower than the 4.7 percent reported the previous day.

The National Capital Region remained the region with the most number of cases with 192, followed by Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) with 111, and Central Visayas with 101.