The pilot testing of the Alert Level System (ALS) will be expanded outside Metro Manila starting tomorrow, Oct. 20, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said.

Speaking in a virtual press briefing Tuesday, Oct. 19, Roque identified 19 areas to be included in the ALS classification from Oct. 20 to 31 in connection with the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The following are the additional pilot areas of the ALS and their corresponding alert level:

Alert level 4: Negros Oriental and Davao Occidental

Alert level 3: Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Siquijor, Davao City, Davao del Norte

Alert level 2: Batangas, Quezon Province, Lucena City, Bohol, Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City, Cebu Province, Davao de Oro, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental.

"We are expanding our pilot implementation of the habang binubusisi pa talaga yung resulta ng initial pilot (while we are scrutinizing the results of the initial pilot)," Roque said.

"Kapag napag-aralan naman talaga na mas epektibo itong , i-implement ito on a nationwide basis. Pero ngayon, limited pilot study pa rin po tayo (If the study results say that the ALS is really more effective, we will implement it on a nationwide basis. But now, we're still on a limited pilot study)," he said.

The ALS had been exclusively observed in the National Capital Region (NCR)--the center of commerce in the country--for the past month. The alert level in the region was recently downgraded from alert level 4 to alert level 3 amid the high vaccination rate of its residents.

Other parts of the country not mentioned in the list of the expanded pilot will retain their community quarantine classifications, the Palace mouthpiece said.

"Meanwhile, the metrics for placing provinces, HUCs (highly urbanized cities) and ICCs (independent component cities) under alert level 1 are amended to include the full vaccination of at least 70 percent of their A2, A3, and eligible population," Roque's presentation read.

The pilot study expansion has been approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) via resolution no. 144-D.

Roque is the concurrent spokesperson of the IATF.