Metro Manila mayors will recommend to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) the lifting of the mandatory wearing of face shields except in “high-risk” places, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said on Monday.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, for her part, said that health experts together with the Department of Health (DOH) would meet on Monday afternoon and update the current review of evidence for the use of face shield in the pandemic response.
This developed even as Manila Mayor and presidential aspirant Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso on Monday declared the “non-mandatory” wearing of face shields in the City of Manila except in hospitals, medical clinics and other medical facilities.
“So we have committed to the IATF that by Thursday [November 11] we will be presenting to them an updated recommendation for the use of face shields,” Vergeire said in an online forum.
MMDA Chairman Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. said that people could do away with face shields, except in areas such as hospitals, health centers, and public-utility vehicles.
“We will recommend the scrapping of mandatory wearing of face shields to the IATF, especially since the majority of the eligible population in Metro Manila are already fully vaccinated and the average daily attack rate as well as the number of Covid-19 cases are going down,” he said.
Abalos said that they would forward their official position to the IATF who will have the final say.
He also said that if given the green light, face shields would no longer be required in malls.
Since December 2020, the IATF has been implementing mandatory use of face shields in all public spaces to curb the transmission of Covid-19. But in September, President Duterte ordered the removal of face shield use except for closed, crowded, and close contact areas.
Abalos also said that the Metro Manila mayors have agreed to require vaccination among exhibitors and sellers at tiangge and pop-up night markets for the safety of the public.
“Since tiangges are seasonal and often last for only two months and sellers come from different areas, it is only proper to require them to be vaccinated,” he said.
In issuing Executive Order 42, Domagoso noted that as of November 4, the IATF has already “deescalated” the alert status in Metro Manila to Level 2.
Alert Level 2 refers to areas wherein case transmission is low and decreasing, health-care utilization is low, or case counts are low or decreasing but total bed utilization rate and intensive care unit utilization rate is increasing.
In several news reports, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año revealed that many government officials who are members of the IATF favor the removing the requirement to wear face shields.
“By the powers vested in me by law do hereby order that, pending the review of the Sangguniang Panlungsod of the city ordinance on the matter, the wearing of face shields in the City of Manila is non-mandatory except in hospital setting, medical clinics and other medical facilities, which shall remain to be mandatory,” said Domagoso in his E.O. 42 that takes effect on Monday, November 8, 2021.
The Manila mayor had earlier urged the national government to purchase Covid-19 medicines, specifically, Tocilizumab and Remdesivir, instead of face shields.
Domagoso had pointed out that the Philippines is the only country in the world where people are required to wear face shields in public on top of their face masks.
The Aksyon Demokratiko standard bearer issued the statement amid an investigation by the Senate regarding the government’s allegedly questionable purchase of P8 billion worth of pandemic supplies, including face shields.