As the number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines continues to fall, the country’s prohibitions are being eased even further.
According to spokesperson Karlo Nograles on Friday, after the government reduced the province of Apayao’s alert level from 3 to 2.
“This latest development means as of today, no province or city is under Alert Level 3,” said Nograles in a Palace briefing on Friday.
“This means that the entire country is under Alert Level 2,” he said.
Some of the changes include: the exclusion of the one-week growth rate when limiting an area from Alert Level 1 to 2; an area will only be placed on a stricter alert level if one of the case classifications or total COVID-19 bed utilization rises to “moderate risk” or higher; and areas on Alert Level 2 will be raised to Alert Level 3 if both case classification and total COVID-19 bed utilization are at moderate risk or if case classification is at high to critical risk.
Although new COVID-19 cases are dropping, relaxations are in the works as the prospect of a potentially more contagious Omicron variant offshore that allegedly impacts vaccine effectiveness looms.
The Philippines is currently enforcing a travel ban in select nations, particularly those on the “red list” identified by the Omicron variation, which is claimed to have 50 mutations in conflict.
Meanwhile, the government fell short of its goal of vaccinating nine million people on National Vaccination Day, with just over 7.6 million inoculated in three days.
As a result, the government has decided to move the National Vaccination Day from November 29 to December 1, which will now take place on December 3.
According to Myrna Cabotaje, head of the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) and Health Undersecretary, 2.7 million people were vaccinated on November 29, 2.4 million on November 30, and 2.4 million on December 1.