There is no need to bring back the face mask mandate.
This was the recommendation of the Department of Health (DOH) to the Office of the President based on the agreement from their discussions with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
In a press conference on Tuesday, May 2, DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire stressed that there is a need to shift the public's mindset. She explained that cases will increase and decrease since Covid-19 remains present and throughout its life cycle, will mutate and produce subvariants occasionally.
Vergeire clarified, however, that this does not mean that the health agency opposes masking and mentioned that they will always encourage it yet she stated that every individual must know how to protect his or herself and their family.
"Piliin natin na magmask tayo kapag pupunta tayo sa mga high risk na mga lugar katulad po ng matataong lugar and closed spaces na pangit ang ventilation lalong-lalo na kung hindi kayo bakunado. Kung kayo po ay nakakatanda o may comorbidity o di kaya kayo po ay immunocompromised o buntis, pillin po natin na magmask (We can choose to wear masks when we're going to high risk areas like crowded places and closed spaces with poor ventilation especially if you're not vaccinated. If you are older or with comorbodities or if you're immunocompromised or pregnant, choose to wear a face mask)," she said.
What the DOH is pointing out, according to Vergeire, is not the value of masking per se but instead how to manage it and how the country will move forward from its current Covid-19 situation.
She also added that the national government cannot afford to implement "back-and-forth" policies since doing so will affect the other sectors of society.
"We cannot have that low tolerance na kapag tumataas ang kaso bigla tayong major reaction ibalik natin iyang pagmamask, mag lock down tayo uli. We cannot do this back and forth policies because we have to balance this with our economy," she said.
"Diyan sa ekonomiyang pinaguusapan natin andami nang nagugutom natin na kababayan which also affects our health, kaya lahat yan binabalanse (In the aspect of the economy, a lot of citizens are driven to starvation which also affects the health, so we have to balance things out)," she added.
Vergeire said that they arrived at the recommendation even before President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s pronouncement he sees no need for a face mask mandate but instead a focus on vaccination among younger individuals.