Vergeire: DOH still prefers continued face mask use

The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday maintained that it still prefers people to keep on wearing their face masks despite the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF) recommendation of its voluntary use outdoors by year-end.

This came after Dr. Maricar Limpin of the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) asked the government to reconsider its proposal, citing the Philippines’ low COVID-19 booster shot uptake.

In a statement, DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire pointed out that the IATF Resolution Number 1, s. 2022 was only recommendatory and was submitted to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for consideration.

The recommendation was to make the wearing of face masks optional in open spaces or non-crowded outdoor areas with good ventilation, provided that the COVID-19 booster uptake in the country improves.

“The position of the DOH is for us to continue on masking, but there were several data that were presented also that led to this decision,” Vergeire said.

“We needed to balance between the health and economy, and what we have compromised would be, this will be done among low risk individuals and in low risk settings,” she added.

She also said that the optional masking should be done only by “low risk individuals” which does not include senior citizens, people with comorbidities, children, and those who have symptoms with COVID-19.

Even Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP) chief Dr. Nina Gloriani on Thursday said the mandatory wearing of face masks should be continuously implemented until the COVID-19 cases in the country stabilizes and the booster uptake increases.

“Para sa akin, sa amin na nasa healthcare medical profession, mas mabuting hintayin na lang muna natin na talagang mag-stabilize ang ating kaso kasi ganito, bumababa, mamaya umaakyat na naman,” Gloriani said in a public briefing.

(For me and for those who are in the healthcare medical profession, we believe that it's better to wait for our COVID-19 cases to really stabilize because it's still going up and down.)

“Hindi naman problema ang pagma-mask ng mga Pilipino. Sana ituloy muna natin at saka bantayan natin kung anong magiging trend,” she added.

(Masking is not a problem for Filipinos. I hope we will continue wearing face masks and monitor first what will be the trend of infections.)

Based on the DOH’s national COVID-19 vaccination dashboard, only 18.3 million of the 72.6 million fully vaccinated Filipinos have received their booster shots as of Tuesday, September 7.—AOL, GMA News