Covid-19 alert levels remain ‘status quo’: Palace

FILE: Qualified individuals queue to receive second Covid-19 booster shots at a mall in San Juan City on Thursday (July 28, 2022). (PNA photo by Joey O. Razon)

MANILA – The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) alert levels in the country will remain in effect until the new classifications are announced, Malacañang said on Friday.

Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said the Department of Health (DOH) is still reviewing the Covid-19 alert level system.

“So, we’ll have to wait. Anyway, right now, it’s status quo, so we’ll maintain alert levels for now. But the entire process is also continuously under review so we have to wait,” Cruz-Angeles told Palace reporters.

Pressed if there will be an announcement about the Covid-19 alert levels before August, she said, “Yes.”

Quizzed for clarification if new Covid-19 alert levels would be implemented for the month of August, Cruz-Angeles, in a text message, said, “That’s speculation. Right now, it is status quo. If it is going to change, it will be announced on time.”

Pending the review of the alert level classifications, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has agreed to retain the most lenient Alert Level 1 classification in more than half of the Philippines, including Metro Manila.

A total of 85 of 121 provinces, highly urbanized cities, independent component cities, as well as 166 of 744 other component cities and municipalities, are currently under Alert Level 1.

DOH Officer in Charge, Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, earlier said the department might come up with new Covid-19 classifications by the second week of August.

Vergeire also said mid-August is a suitable period to loosen up to allay fears of medical professionals and give them time to make Covid-19 cases more manageable.

The DOH is also reconstituting the members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to only those with “relevant and intended functions.”

The country recorded 21,331 new Covid-19 infections from July 21 to 27, according to the data released by the DOH on Thursday.

The DOH also reported an average of 3,047 cases per day.

Despite the continued uptick in cases, the DOH said the Philippines remains at low risk for Covid-19 infections.