The number of children infected with COVID-19 reached 400,000 in January but 16 percent of those hospitalized had critical or severe infection, a pediatric infectious disease expert said Monday.

During the ''Laging Handa'' virtual public briefing, Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines President Mary Ann Bunyi said the numbers were based on Department of Health (DOH) data.

"We have what we call the Salvacion Registry. It is an online registry which is a project of the Philippine Pediatric Society and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines where the children hospitalized due to COVID-19 were recorded," she said.

However, Bunyi noted that 16 percent of the hospitalized children experienced critical and severe infection.

"In the last data that we got, there are around 2,000 children that were hospitalized, 16 percent of the 2,000 have critical or severe conditions because of COVID," she added.

As the government eases restrictions in Metro Manila and seven other provinces to Alert Level 2 starting Tuesday, Acting Presidential Spokesperson Karlo Nograles reminded parents and guardians not to bring children to malls and other crowded or public places.

"We've been through this before last December. Please make sure that the children are wearing masks. The infants or children at a very young age (are) not appropriate to wear a mask. Do not bring them outside," he said.

"Just a reminder to the parents wearing masks is very, very important. So please make sure that if ever the children were not able to wear masks properly, fully cover their face, let's not bring them out," he added.

During the ''Laging Handa'' virtual public briefing on Monday, Interior and Local Government spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said "under the Alert Level 2 system all the minors are allowed to move around subject to LGU rules.

"As a policy under the IATF the children can go outside but... as a matter of general policy under Alert Level 2, the children are already allowed to go out," he said. Robina Asido/DMS