Wearing Face Mask Outdoors to be Optional

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has recommended the optional wearing of face masks outdoors in the country.

Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire revealed yesterday in a Palace media briefing that the optional wearing of face masks is only for low-risk persons and in low-risk areas such as outdoors.

Vergeire specified that individuals who are immunocompromised or the elderly are prompted to wear face masks when outside.

The IATF also said that the implementation should be done in phases.

Vergeire said that the IATF is still gathering data and also devising a way to implement the pilot study.

Vergeire also clarified that the optional wearing of face masks outdoors is not yet a policy.

The optional wearing of face masks outdoors awaits the formal approval of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., after an executive order is signed, should formally implement the said policy.

It can be remembered that last week Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama issued Executive Order No. 6 (EO No.6) or the non-mandatory wearing of face masks outdoors in the city.

Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benhur Abalos talked to Rama to temporarily stop the implementation of EO No. 6.

“We respect autonomy, of course. But we’ve got the national law, the local law which we try to harmonize,” Abalos said.

Moreover, Abalos added that he has already forwarded the matter to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).

Among Southeast Asian nations, only the Philippines and Myanmar have policies that mandate the wearing of face masks. (GFB)