Manila lifts mandatory use of face shields outside medical facilities

Use of face shields amid the COVID-19 pandemic has just been made non-mandatory in Manila except in hospitals, medical clinics and other medical facilities.

In issuing Executive Order No. 42, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno noted that quarantine restriction in Metro Manila has been eased to Alert Level 2.

Alert Level 2 refers to areas wherein case transmission is low and decreasing, healthcare utilization is low, or case counts are low or decreasing but total bed utilization rate and intensive care unit utilization rate is increasing.

“By the powers vested in me by law do hereby order that, pending the review of the Sangguniang Panlungsod of the city ordinance on the matter, the wearing of face shields in the City of Manila is non-mandatory except in hospital setting, medical clinics and other medical facilities which shall remain to be mandatory,” said Moreno in EO 42.

The EO takes effect on Monday, November 8.

Moreno, who is running for president in the 2022 elections, had pointed out that the Philippines is the only country in the world where people are required to wear face shields in public on top of their face masks.

Manila becomes the latest city in the country to ditch the mandatory use of face shields outside medical facilities.

Last week, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio issued Executive Order No. 51-A stating that the wearing of face shields in the city will be voluntary under certain conditions or the so-called 3Cs — crowded places, close-contact settings, and confined and enclosed spaces.

Also on Monday, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chair Benhur Abalos said other Metro Manila mayors have agreed to make the wearing of face shields optional.

As these developed, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque warned mayors against defying the mandatory face shield policy for crowded and enclosed spaces, saying the policy remained in effect unless the government’s pandemic task force says otherwise.

“Ang desisyon po ng IATF, ay desisyon din ng Presidente. So ang desisyon po ngayon ay kailangan ipatupad muna ang mga face shields habang pinagaaralan po,” Roque said in his briefing on Monday.

(The decision of the IATF is also the President’s decision. The decision, for the moment, is to implement the mandatory use of face shields while discussions on doing away with it are ongoing.)

“Mayors are under the supervision of the President. Let us follow the chain of command,” he added.  —KBK, GMA News

Manila lifts mandatory use of face shields outside medical facilities
Source: Filipino Viral News PH