IATF recommends lifting mandatory use of face masks in open areas
By Robina Asido
The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases recommended the lifting of the mandatory use of face masks in open outdoor spaces.
"The IATF recommended the liberalization of the mask wearing mandate, and make mask-wearing outdoors voluntary across the country," Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles in Singapore said during the Palace briefing on Wednesday.
Department of Health Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said the IATF recommendation got a verbal approval from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. while he was still in Indonesia. She added an executive order should be issued for the new policy.
"Actually the very reason why we are having this presscon and initially informing the public of this was because there was this verbal approval from the President when they talked with Secretary Benhur (Abalos) from Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)," she said.
"What we are doing right now is initially informing the public so that everybody is informed about the IATF resolution. And again, the President has given his verbal approval when the Secretary of DILG called him," said Vergeire.
"But it stated in the IATF Resolution No. 1 Series of 2022 that the IATF has resolved to recommend to the President and that there should be, or the President will issue an executive order regarding this policy," she added.
She said the IATF Resolution Number One series of 2022 was signed last September 5. But it did not say when the easing of wearing face masks in open spaces will take effect.
Cruz-Angeles said the government is still encouraging senior citizens and the immunocompromised individuals to continue wearing face masks outdoors.
"It will be optional in open spaces or non-crowded outdoor areas with good ventilation, provided that senior citizens and those immunocompromised individuals are highly encouraged to wear their masks, to continue wearing masks," he added.
However, the total lifting of the mandatory mask mandate which includes the indoor use of face masks is still being studied for possible pilot testing by the end of the year.
"The total lifting of the mandatory mask mandate will be piloted towards the last quarter of 2022 provided that there will be improvement in our COVID-19 booster vaccination coverage. So we need to improve our booster statistics so that by the end of the year, we can conduct pilot testing of the lifting of the mandatory mask mandate,"Cruz-Angeles said.
Vergeire said that "indoor masking is still being studied by the IATF together with experts."
"We will conduct a pilot study on this so that we can determine if our health sector can already manage the lifting of indoor masking towards the end of the year if booster coverage will improve in our country," she said.
Vergeire said public transportation including the trains should be exempted from the voluntary use of face masks as it is considered as among the crowded areas.
"When we talk about public transportation, we talk about a crowded place. So, it’s about a crowded setting. So, we should not include this, nonetheless, because it's like an indoor space, especially LRT, MRT. So maybe it will exempted from that voluntary nature, because we expect that transport areas or the public transport are always crowded," she said.
Angeles said "all the government agencies are encouraged to support the National Booster Week from September 26 to 29 through the implementation of sector specific policies and incentives to encourage people to receive booster shots." DMS
