MANILA – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has decided to retain the existing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Alert Level System in Western Visayas until further notice.
According to Marcos, the retention was to avoid confusion as the government is planning to have a new COVID-19 health classification scheme by next month.
“To avoid confusion, we will retain the alert level system for now,” Marcos was quoted as saying to Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire in a meeting at Malacañang.
“We are, however, studying very closely and we’ll come to a decision very soon as to decoupling the restrictions from the alert levels,” the Chief Executive added.
The DOH may release the new classifications by mid-August as the President wants “to reclassify restrictions that are compatible with the current milder strains that afflict the patients.”
Based on the existing Alert Level status released by the previous administration’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), Negros Occidental and Antique is at Alert Level 2.
Iloilo City, Iloilo Province, Aklan, Bacolod City, Guimaras, Capiz and some component cities and municipalities from Antique and Negros Occidental were under COVID-19 Alert Level 1.
The current alert level in the country may be eased if the number of Filipinos with booster shots would increase in the near future, Vergeire said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo on Tuesday.
According to Vergeire, President Marcos has been pushing to strengthen the government’s campaign to promote COVID-19 booster shots and wants to administer at least 23 million booster shots within Marcos’ first 100 days in office.
“If we are able to achieve that in these 100 days, then diyan po tayo mag-uusap kung mayroon tayong panibago o further easing of restrictions,: Vergeire said.
Of the 55 million fully vaccinated Filipinos against COVID-19, only 15 million individuals have availed of booster doses, based on the latest data from DOH./PN
