The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Wednesday added its voice to calls for people to continue masking up outdoors, despite a new policy that makes face masks optional outdoors.
MMDA acting chairman Carlo Dimayuga III said the wearing of face masks protects individuals not only against coronavirus but also from pollution.
He said his agency strongly enjoins the public, particularly those who are not fully vaccinated, immune-compromised, and senior citizens, to continue wearing face masks whether indoors or outdoors to minimize the risk of getting infected with the virus and stops its further transmission.
The MMDA also released a memorandum to all its employees emphasizing the need to still strictly adhere to the minimum health protocols. In the memorandum, all employees are urged to wear masks even outdoors for their own protection.
“Traffic enforcers and street sweepers face the risk of acquiring respiratory illnesses in the performance of their duties.
To protect their well-being, we highly encourage them to continue wearing face masks because their health is ofutmost priority for the agency,” Dimayuga said.
Under Executive Order No. 3, wearing of face masks in open spaces and non-crowded outdoor areas with good ventilation is now optional or voluntary provided that physical distancing will be observed at all times.
Earlier, Department of Health OIC and Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said optional masking should be done only by “low risk individuals” which does not include senior citizens, people with comorbidities, children, and those who have symptoms of COVID-19.
Vergeire said that wearing of face masks was “still our default” in any public place.
The head of the country’s vaccine expert panel, Dr. Nina Gloriani, said the Philippines has not yet seen stability in the number of COVID-19 cases.
“I have been saying this all along. For as long as we have people going out, transmitting the infection, the mutation of this virus continues, and we expect the emergence of variants. So, we are not off the hook yet,” Gloriani said in an interview with ANC’s “Headstart.”
Following the relaxed mask rule, Gloriani urged Filipinos to assess their risk against COVID-19.
She said she hoped that their risk assessment would lead them to continue wearing masks.
Dr. Jose Rene de Grano, president of the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines, Inc, said COVID-19 remains a threat with 2,000 to 3,000 infections being recorded per day. The number does not include people who might be infected but do not take antigen or RT-PCR tests despite COVID symptoms, he added.
“It’s much too early to lift the mask mandate because we still have a lot of infections,” he said in Filipino in a TeleRadyo interview.
“Wear masks. This is more important, better protection against not only COVID but other respiratory diseases,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.
De Grano denied that the Philippines has almost attained a so-called “wall of immunity” against the virus after more than 72 million Filipinos received a second completed dose of the vaccine.
“We can’t say that there is a wall of immunity because it is likely that our first vaccine that was given has almost no effect,” he said, adding that many Filipinos have yet to receive booster doses.
Also on Wednesday, the independent OCTA Research Group said it observed a spike in COVID-19 infections in the province of Pangasinan.
OCTA Research fellow Guido David, in a tweet, said the seven-day average of new cases in Pangasinan increased from 36 on Sept. 6 to 69 on Sept. 13, with a one-week growth rate of 92 percent.
David said the province earlier recorded a one-week growth rate of 8 percent.
The positivity rate in the province increased to 10.9 percent on Sept. 12 from 6.9 percent on Sept. 10, David said.
The positivity rate refers to the percentage of people who were found positive for COVID-19 among the total number of individuals tested.
David also said the COVID-19 reproduction number in the province climbed to 1.40 as of Sept. 10 from 1.10 on Sept. 3.
The reproduction rate refers to the number of people infected by one case. A reproduction number that is below 1 indicates that the transmission of the virus is slowing down.
However, the province’s average daily attack rate (ADAR) is 2.18 per 100,000 population, which is considered “low,” David said.
ADAR pertains to the average number of new cases in a period per 100,000 people.