Herbosa favors continued use of face masks but open to seeing outcome in Cebu City

Though he is in favor of the continued use of face masks, the former adviser of the National Task Against COVID-19 said the government could also monitor and see the outcome of the optional face mask policy in Cebu City.

“Kung ako ang tatanungin, tignan muna natin kung anong mangyari sa Cebu," said Dr. Ted Herbosa during Monday's Public Briefing. "Kung gusto talaga nila gawing optional ‘yan mask sa outdoor ay tignan natin kung tataas ang cases sa kanila at tignan natin kung mapapataas nila ‘yung mga taong nagpapa booster.”

(If you ask me, we can take the time to see what will happen in Cebu, if they want to make the use of face masks optional outdoors. Let’s see if their cases will increase and if they can increase the number of residents getting boosters.)

Earlier, the Cebu City Government announced that its voluntary face mask policy would go through a “trial period” until December 2022. The policy would be automatically withdrawn should there be a surge of cases in the city.

Herbosa, for his part, supported the Department of Heath’s (DOH) view on the matter, which was that the number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines needed to be stabilized before such a policy was enacted.

“Sang ayon ako sa mga pahayag ng Department of Health dito. Ang sabi ng ating OIC, hindi raw sila na konsulta bago ilabas itong executive order. Maganda naman siguro na makipag coordinate or collaborate sa pamahalaan, sa Kagawaran ng Kalusugan, bago gumawa ng ganitong polisiya,” Herbosa said at the Public Briefing.

(I agree with the statements of the DOH. Our Health Department OIC said they were not consulted before the EO was issued. It would be better if LGUs coordinated or collaborated with the DOH before such policies were created.)

State of calamity

Meanwhile, Herbosa said he is also in favor of extending the country's COVID-19 state of calamity.

The DOH last week said it submitted a recommendation to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to extend the state of calamity in the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Ako ay sangayon sa sinasabi ng Department of Heath na hindi pa tayo totally out of the woods dito. At agree ako sa mungkahi nila na ipalawig pa ‘yung state of emergency para maka responde tayo ng mabilis at marapat na continued cases ng COVID-19,” Herbosa said.

(I agree with what the DOH said, that we are not yet totally out of the woods here. And I agree with the suggestion to extend the state of emergency so we quickly and correctly respond to continued cases of COVID-19.) — DVM, GMA News