With COVID-19 cases going up again, it is best to be reminded of the precautionary measures we've been doing when it first arrived in our country. There's also nothing wrong in adding more preventive ways to keep the virus at bay.

The Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Leopoldo "Bong" Jumalon Vega shared through an online Palace presser said last Thursday, March 18, "We can double mask, do a granular or zonal lockdown like in August or September to cut transmission in communities."

“Aside from that (double masking) is, of course, the other recommendations of siyempre iyong (course is the) ventilation, if you are in a group you have to be in a well-ventilated area,” he says. He also added that we should observe social hygiene which is to have less or zero interaction with someone we haven't seen for a long time and to not stay in crowded places.

“Ini-emphasize ko ito (I emphasized this) because as you all know the transmissibility or the contagiousness of this virus is getting to be out of hand. And for me, minimum health standards dapat i-enhance na natin (we should enhance) individually, this is a shared responsibility and the individual change of behavior and we have to enhance what we are trying to do now so that on our end as an individual person, we contribute for the common good of the community by enhancing what public standards there are,” shares Vega.

For families who live in one house, Vega said that wearing masks might not be needed. "But t if you have a grandmother there and you work as health care worker and you know very well that the pre-clinical phase of Covid, you can easily transmit, so I would advise better to have mask," he says.

Vega stressed the importance of following these preventive steps against the virus is a community effort—a shared responsibility of every Filipino. — PNA