It is not time to remove the alert level system in the country, Acting Presidential Spokesperson Karlo Nograles said on Wednesday.

"It is not yet time to remove the alert level system because while NCR has a high vaccination rate, we still have to ramp up vaccination in other regions although we’re seeing very, very good numbers now in the different regions," said Nograles in a television interview.

"Just in case a new variant of concern or interest comes or there is again another surge, we can quickly escalate to Alert Level 2," he added.

Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said last Monday he believes the Philippines is ready to remove the alert level system and granular lockdowns by March or April.

He said the country must enforce basic health protocols against COVID-19, such as wearing face masks.

Nograles expressed hope there will not be another variant of concern as deadly as the Delta variant.

"We hope that Delta would be the last variant of concern that is deadly and hopefully, the mutations will go the way of Omicron which is less fatal even if it is more transmissible," he said.

Nograles said the alert level in some areas in the country can further deescalate depending on the development of the vaccination campaign and other factors set by the Inter-Agency Task Force.

"We do not deescalate until every 15 days so let us see by February 16 if NCR can transition to Alert Level 1. We did consider this last year before Omicron happened," he said.

"It’s a little bit of a wait and see but we are hopeful and experts are being careful," he added. Robina Asido/DMS