MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police said Saturday that it will keep enforcing the mandatory wearing of face masks despite the optional mask policy in outdoor areas in Cebu.
In a statement, PNP said the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) already gave a clear directive for agencies and local governments to implement measures which observe the minimum public health standards under the alert levels.
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"Thus, the PNP will continue to enforce the standing orders and directives against those violators of the face mask rule," the national police force said.
"We will also continue to warn and remind the public not to relax as COVID-19 is still in our sorrounding. We urge the public for cooperation to government measures on public health set by the National IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force)," it added.
Earlier this week, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia issued an executive order which said the wearing of face masks is no longer required in "well-ventilated and open spaces."
She noted that other countries like Singapore have allowed the optional wearing of face masks in outdoor areas, citing improvement in the global COVID-19 situation.
The executive order goes against the rules of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases which only allow for masks to be removed in specific cases, such as when eating or during certain well-ventilated sports and activities.
The wearing of face masks is one of the minimum public health protocols which has helped curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country, the Health department has said.
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The mandatory face mask policy is bound to protect Filipinos against the virus and other respiratory infections such as monkeypox, according to Department of Health Undersecretary and spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire.
"We know that there are subvariants entering the country and the number of those getting their [COVID-19] vaccines are still low. Booster uptake is also low...We should keep wearing these face masks which have given us protection for the past two years," she said in Filipino during an interview with Laging Handa.
She explained that other countries which lifted their obligatory face mask policies saw a rise in COVID-19 cases.
"Let's keep wearing the face masks...Let's not be too hasty. Let us not be impatient. We will arrive at the point when face masks are not mandatory anymore, but for now, we need to manage the cases," she said in Filipino.
The Philippines registered an additional 287 COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing up the total caseload to 3.69 million since the start of the pandemic. — With reports from Franco Luna and Le Phyllis Antojado