Another 14 locations in the country are scheduled to be placed under Alert Level 3 in the coming days.
This was confirmed by Cabinet Secretary and Acting Presidential Spokesperson Karlo Nograles in a statement late Thursday night, Jan. 6.
"The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) approved today, Jan. 6, 2022, the recommendation of its sub-technical working group on data analytics to escalate the following cities and provinces to Alert Level 3," read the statement.
The areas to be escalated are as follows: Baguio City in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR); Dagupan City in Region 1; City of Santiago and Cagayan in Region 2; Angeles City, Bataan, Olongapo City, Pampanga and Zambales in Region 3; Batangas and Lucena City in Region 4-A; Naga City in Region 5; Iloilo City in Region 6; and Lapu-lapu City in Region 7.
"This shall take effect from Jan. 9, 2022, until Jan. 15, 2022," Nograles said.
On Friday, Jan. 7,, Alert Level 3 will also cover the entire National Capital Region (NCR)-plus. The NCR-plus is composed of Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, and Laguna.
The alert level escalations are an offshoot of the current surge in new daily coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines. The Omicron variant supposedly triggered the surge, which started in the last week of December.
The rest of the country remains under Alert Level 2.
Nograles, who also serves as IATF spokesperson, made a presentation about the new alert level escalations during President Duterte's "Talk to the People" public briefing on Thursday night.