The government's pandemic task force has amended the metrics that will be used to determine what alert level would be raised in provinces, highly urbanized cities, and independent component cities, Malacañang announced Thursday, Feb. 24.
Cabinet secretary and acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases decided to make the changes following the recommendation of the Sub-Technical Working Group (sTWG) on Data Analytics.
According to Nograles, the Alert Level Matrix used for the heightening of the alert level would still be determined by case classification and total COVID-19 beds utilization.
However, it should be revised as follows: Cutoffs for the average daily attack rate (ADAR) shall be less than six for Low Risk; six to 18 for Moderate Risk; and more than eighteen for High Risk.
Meanwhile, Nograles added that provinces, highly urbanized cities, and independent component cities shall be deescalated to Alert Level 1 upon meeting all of the following criteria:
- Low to minimal risk case classification;
- Total bed utilization rate of less than fifty percent (
- Full vaccination of seventy percent (70%) of its target population (denominator is 80% of its total population); and
- Full vaccination of eighty percent (80%) of its Priority Group A2 (Senior Citizens) target population (denominator is 85% of A2 population)
"These revised metrics shall be applied in determining the alert level classification of provinces, highly urbanized cities and independent component cities beginning March 1, 2022," Nograles noted.