By The SUN
Filipinos who went outdoors before were made to wear not just face masks, but also face shields
Wearing of face masks in non-crowded
outdoor places is now optional in the Philippines, in line with Executive Order
No 3 which was signed by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr today, Sept 12.
But masks will still be required
when inside private or public establishments (such as restaurants and malls), all
kinds of public transportation, and in any outdoor setting where it would be
difficult to maintain physical distancing.
The move, which was proposed by the
Inter-Agency Task Force on pandemic control and verbally approved by Marcos
last Friday, became official with the signing of the EO.
Press secretary Trixie Angeles announced
its being signed into law earlier today.
“The voluntary wearing of face masks
in open spaces and non-crowded outdoor areas with good ventilation is hereby
allowed, provided that not fully vaccinated individuals, senior citizens and
immunocompromised individuals are highly encouraged to wear their masks and
physical distancing will be observed at all times,” Angeles said.
The Philippines’ top medical experts
opposed easing the masking requirement, saying it could send the wrong signal
to the public that they should not be afraid of Covid-19 anymore, and should no
longer go for vaccination.
Infectious disease expert Dr
Rontgene Solante has warned that it is not yet time to allow people to take off
their masks outdoors, even when Covid cases in the Philippines are on the
decline.
Solante said it was because of the country’s
strict mask-wearing policy that the number of Covid cases are now low, and
suggested the government should focus more on boosting vaccinations instead of “tinkering”
with anti-pandemic policies.
Dr Maricar Limpin, past president of
the Philippine College of Physicians also expressed concern over the no-mask
rule during a talk at a hotel in Makati City on Thursday, Sept. 8.
“It basically gives the impression
to a lot of Filipinos that there’s no need…. ‘You should not be afraid of
Covid-19 anymore and there’s no even need to vaccinate,’” said Dr. Limpin.
“So
papaano na mangyayari sa booster campaign natin?,” she added. (So what will
happen to our booster campaign?)
Even the officer-in-charge at the
Department of Health, Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire, was hesitant to endorse the
IATF recommendation.
“The position of the DOH is for us
to continue on masking, but there were several [pieces of] data that were also
presented that led to this decision,” Vergeire said in a statement on Friday.
“We needed to balance between the
health and economy, and what we have compromised would be, this will be done
among low-risk individuals and in low-risk settings.”
She said then that the policy change
was still recommendatory, and that high-risk individuals like senior citizens,
people with comorbidities, children, unvaccinated and Covid-19 positive
individuals would still be required to wear masks at all times when outdoors.
However, the EO that has just been
signed does not make this qualified prohibition compulsory, meaning no one in
the high-risk category could be penalized for not wearing a mask while in wide open
spaces outdoors.
In recommending the radical policy shift,
the IATF said only the Philippines and Myanmar are keeping the mask mandate among
ASEAN countries.
Most countries in Europe as well as
the United States have already dropped mandatory mask-wearing in public places,
but this was largely because a big portion of their population have been
vaccinated and boosted against Covid-19.
In the Philippines which has a
population of around 110 million, over 72 million individuals have had two
shots of a vaccine, but only 18.2 million, or 16% of the population, have
received the booster jab.
As of Sept 7, the country’s “active
infections” or those receiving treatment for Covid-19 infections, numbered 22,899,
according to government data.
Not reflected are those with mild or
no symptoms, including a big number of Filipinos, mostly foreign domestic
workers, who found themselves infected when they took PCR tests in preparation
for flying to Hong Kong.
And even if they managed to hurdle
this pre-boarding test requirement, about 20 passengers from the Philippines on
average test positive either on arrival at Hong Kong airport, during their three-day
hotel quarantine, or subsequent four days of medical surveillance.
