Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III said that all areas in the country may be under Covid-19 Alert Level 1 until the end of President Duterte’s term in June this year.
Duque said that they are currently guiding some areas for them to be downgraded to Alert Level 1.
The Health chief said at least 57 areas in the Philippines were still under Alert Level 2 and they needed to focus on increasing their vaccination coverage before they can be deescalated.
“So, ayan muna ang ating pagtuunan ng pansin kesa pag usapan yung Alert Level 0, eh maayos naman tayo sa Alert Level 1. Tingin ko baka ito ay hanggang sa katapusan (So, that's what we're going to focus on rather than discussing Alert Level 0. I believe we're doing fine with Alert Level 1. I think this will stay until the end) ,” he said during a public briefing on Thursday, March 17.
“So, Alert Level 1 muna tayo, malamang hanggang sa katapusan ng termino ng ating Pangulong Duterte (we'll likely be under Alert Level 1 until the end of President Duterte's term),” he added.
Duque said that they are still in the process of determining the elements of Alert Level 0, such as whether the mandatory wearing of face masks will be removed or not.
“Iyang usapin na iyan ay binubuo palang at para sa akin iyan ang pinakamahirap sagutin na katanungan. Tatanggalin na ba natin ang face mask, eh tingin ko hindi pa panahon para magtanggal ng face mask (That discussion is still in the development process and for me, that is the most difficult question to answer. Are we going to remove the face mask, I don't think it's time to remove it now),” he said.
Duque said that the country should learn from the experiences of other nations such as Austria, Denmark, Germany, and France which are currently having a spike in Covid-19 cases after they loosened their restrictions.
“Gusto ba natin matulad sa kanila? Ayaw natin. So dahan-dahan tayo (Do we want to be like them? We don't want to. We should take this slowly) . Let us be prudent and let us be guided by data and science through our expert panel,” he said.
“Konting pasensya, pinag-aaralan na po iyan. Darating at darating ang panahon kung kinakailangan magtanggal ang mask---at bakit naman hindi. Pero sa ngayon masyadong premature, maaga (Let's have more patience, we are already studying that. The time will come when it is necessary to remove the face mask. But right now it's too premature, it's too early),” he added.