President Marcos Jr., on Sunday said the government is studying the possible reimposition of the face mask use policy amid the rising number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country.
At the same time, the President said it is ramping up its vaccination efforts, especially among the young people, to control the uptrend.
The President, in an interview onboard PR 001 while on his way to Washington for his official working visit, said the government would look coordinate with the Interagency Task Force Against for Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) and the Department of Health (DOH) about the return of the mandatory wearing of face masks, which was made voluntary last year following the drop in COVID cases.
“We’ll look at it. Tingnan natin kung may guidance ang IATF, may guidance ang DOH. I think… I hope we don’t have to but we might but I hope not (We’ll look at it. We’ll look if the IATF has some guidelines, if there is guidance from the DOH. I think, I hope, we don’t have to, but we might, but I hope not),” Marcos said.
The DOH has been reporting in recent weeks climbing COVID-19 infections and rising positivity rates in the country, which it attributed to several factors, including the population mobility during the holidays and the increase in the number of people taking COVID-19 tests.
As of April 29, the DOH said there are 5,070 active COVID-19 cases in the country, while the positivity rate was recorded at 13.5 percent.
In Pasig City, the local government urged its residents to take extra precaution as its number of COVID-19 cases nearly tripled in the past week.
The Pasig Public Information Office (PIO) reported 157 cases on April 29, a big jump from the 64 cases reported on April 23.
VAX EFFORTS
Marcos said the government is looking to ramp up vaccination efforts “especially for young people” to increase their protection and manage the increase in COVID-19 cases.
He said that due to the current weather, the immune system of people, especially the young, go down which makes them more vulnerable to COVID-19.
“We will have to conduct again, especially for young people, we’ll have to conduct again a vaccination push para mabawasan na ‘yan, para mabawasan ‘yan especially with people (We will have to conduct again, especially for young people, we’ll have to conduct again a vaccination push to reduce [the rise in cases], especially with people),” he said.
The DOH has reported that 79.16 million Filipinos are now fully vaccinated, while 24 million have received their booster. It also said 75.7 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine against COVID-19.
Among the youth, 5.625 million kids between five to 11 years old, and 10.2 million between the ages of 12 and 17, are fully vaccinated. On the other hand, 1.24 million of children 12 to 17 years old have received their first booster shots. — With Christian Oineza
