Rama: Prolonged Alert Level 1 will eventually lead to relaxed mask policies
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama | file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — As Cebu City would remain under Alert Level 1 until the end of the month, Mayor Michael Rama said that mask restrictions would eventually be eased.
In a short press conference on June 16, 2022, Rama said that he already expected the city to maintain the Alert Level 1 status.
After all, the COVID-19 situation has not changed much over the past two weeks with the active cases hovering below 30 and the critical care occupancy rate remaining steady.
“That is no longer a matter as long as we are continuing vaccination on the way to liberation, and preventive medicine, including the wearing of face masks on a case-to-case basis,” said Rama.
The city has moved on to fighting another disease as well, with the city having the most dengue cases in Central Visayas based on Department of Health (DOH) records.
Dengue has kept the attention of the City Health Department (CHD) in recent weeks as well, reducing the attention on the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the Cebu Provincial government’s controversial move of allowing the public the choice to wear or not to wear face masks in open well-ventilated spaces, Rama said the trend would be for the city to go there as well.
“That would really be a natural consequence just like now, we don’t have a face mask,” he said.
The mayor said he would consult the convergence group if it would be time to follow the province’s policy and allow relaxed use of the face mask.
However, Rama said that based on the current situation, he was not inclined to remove the mandatory face mask policy yet because the return of economic activities had spurred daily crowds into the city.
Being the center of commerce, the mayor said the masks might be the most basic protection that residents and transients could use against another outbreak of COVID-19.
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