IATF revises alert level metrics

MANILA – The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) approved on Thursday the revised metrics to determine the Covid-19 alert level classifications of all areas in the country effective March 1.

In a statement, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, acting presidential spokesperson, said under the new alert level matrix, the cutoffs for the average daily attack rate (ADAR) of Covid-19 cases shall be less than six for low risk classification; six to 18 for moderate risk; and more than 18 for high risk.

Nograles said areas can be de-escalated to Alert Level 1 upon meeting all of the following criteria: low to minimal risk case classification; total bed utilization rate of less than 50 percent; full vaccination of 70 percent of its target population; and full vaccination of 80 percent of the target population for senior citizens.

He said the alert level metrics were amended based on the recommendations of the Sub-Technical Working Group (sTWG) on Data Analytics.

“These revised metrics shall be applied in determining the alert level classification of provinces, highly urbanized cities and independent component cities beginning March 1, 2022,” he said.

The Metro Manila Council (MMC) on Thursday said the Metro Manila mayors unanimously recommended to place the National Capital Region (NCR) under the lowest Alert Level 1 starting March 1 amid the declining Covid-19 cases in the region.

The IATF-IED met on Thursday to discuss the MMC’s recommendation.

The Department of Health on Thursday recorded 1,745 new Covid-19 cases and 2,045 more recoveries, pushing the nation’s overall tally of confirmed infections to 3,657,342 and recovered cases to 3,546,098.

The latest Covid-19 bulletin indicated 55,079 active cases.