AN official from the Davao City Health Office (CHO) personally recommended that the mandatory wearing of face masks be retained as there is still an ongoing Covid-19 community transmission in the city.
CHO Head Dr. Ashley Lopez said during the iSpeak press conference on Thursday, September 8 that while the Covid-19 transmission is classified as low risk, he said the city is still experiencing an ongoing community transmission.
“Ang atong (Our) seven-day moving average is still at 76 cases per day,” Lopez said.
His statement is in response to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) recommendation to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. making wearing of face masks in open spaces across the country optional.
In a joint press conference at the Malacañang on Wednesday, September 7, 2022, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said the IATF recommended liberalizing the country’s face mask policy in “open, non-crowded and well-ventilated areas.” However, Cruz-Angeles said it is still not a policy.
The Cebu City government issued an executive order, making the wearing of face masks in all areas whether open spaces or not optional.
Lopez said that Cebu City’s order is still a “prior phase,” and that its result is still being studied.
In the case of Davao City, the health official said the city continues to impose the City Ordinance No. 0307-20, which prescribes the mandatory wearing of face masks in public, violators shall be penalized with a fine of P500 for the first offense; P2,000 for a second offense; and P5,000 or one-month imprisonment for the third offense.
In addition, Lopez said that having a well-ventilated area is also one of the two health protocols retained two years after the pandemic.
“These are two very basic measures we can maintain, up to such time siguro (maybe) when we get zero cases, but for now, I think for the rest of the year, if someone will ask my opinion, I would like to recommend that we maintain the imposition of the mandatory wearing of face mask until, at least, the end of the year,” Lopez said.
In case the President will approve the order, the health official said the “city is not worried” since the local governments are still given the discretion, whether or not, to follow the order.
“If that will come officially, then the Covid-19 Task Force will talk about it, and we will have the finality once it is approved by the Task Force,” he said.
Lopez said this was tackled during their meeting on Monday, September 5. However, this was not fully elaborated considering that there is still an ongoing pandemic.
The state of public health emergency, declared by former President Rodrigo Duterte, is until September 12, 2022 only. Although reports from state-media cited that Marcos is considering extending the validity of the state of public health emergency amid the Covid-19 pandemic. RGL