Metro Manila could shift to alert level 1 if cases go down below 1,000

A family spends time together in a big shopping mall in Quezon City on Saturday, November 6, 2021. The government’s pandemic task force has placed the entire Metro Manila under COVID-19 Alert Level 2, allowing minors inside malls, since November 5. INQUIRER.net/Katherine G. Adraneda

MANILA, Philippines — Restrictions in Metro Manila could be further eased to the very loose level if COVID-19 cases go down below 1,000 or 500, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Tuesday.

Metro Manila was recently placed on alert level 2, the second most relaxed status, following an improvement in case numbers.

Should the downward trend continue, Metro Manila could be placed on alert level 1, Duque said.

He noted that only a little over 2,000 cases were reported in the country on Monday.

“It’s possible that if we go below 1,000 or 500 per day, we could go down to alert level 1. Who would not want a lower alert level when it would open a bigger portion of the economy, bring back more jobs that were lost, return economic vitality, and bring back normalcy in every Filipino’s life,” he said at the televised Laging Handa briefing.

Under alert level 1, establishments and activities would be allowed at full venue capacity, provided that they comply with minimum public health standards.

But Duque expressed concern over the crowds in public spaces after Metro Manila was placed on alert level 2 and children were allowed to go out.

People should continue to comply with minimum public health standards such as wearing of face masks and face shields, washing or sanitizing of hands and physical distancing, he said.

“These are practical rules that we should not disregard because we have long proven that these are truly effective, after 20 months of nonstop COVID-19 pandemic response,” he said.

People should get vaccinated as well, he said, stressing that the vaccines have been proven to be effective against severe and critical COVID-19 and could prevent hospitalization and death.

Duque said people should not expect COVID-19 to go away easily and should be prepared to live with it.

Duque has also pushed for the “voluntary” use of face shields but said he would let the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) decide if the safety devices are to be retained.

Duque said the IATF, which he chairs, will tackle on Thursday the discontinuation of the use of face shields that Metro Manila mayors have proposed for the National Capital Region.

The secretary said his personal stand was to continue using face shields but only in “3Cs” situations, meaning closed areas, crowded places and close-contact settings.

“We can do it voluntarily under certain circumstances. If you are in places where the ventilation is not enough, and there are many people, and you can’t maintain the one-meter social distancing, wouldn’t it be better to have the additional protection given by the face shields?” he said.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said at his press briefing that he thinks face shield use should be scrapped but added that the IATF should be the one to formally decide on it and not local governments.

Meanwhile, new COVID-19 infections reached another record-low on Tuesday, with 1,409 cases, bringing the total tally to 2,806,694.

This was the lowest fresh case count in nearly nine months, specifically since Feb. 17 when new daily infections were pegged at 1,184.

Total active cases have gone down to 30,544, of which 60.7 percent had mild symptoms.

There were 2,941 recoveries that added to the 2,731,583 survivors. The death toll, however, rose to 44,567 after 46 more fatalities were registered.

According to the Department of Health, the lower number of deaths reported on Monday was due to technical issues in the COVIDKaya, the government repository for COVID-19 cases.

It also said that 14 labs were not able to submit data on time.

The country’s positivity rate inched up to 5.4 percent after 1,659 individuals were found positive of the 30,716 tests conducted.