By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan / Philippine News Agency
Interior Sec. Eduardo Año said the number of places under granular lockdown all over the country has been reduced to only 42 due to the effectiveness of the government’s alert level system to prevent the spread of COVID-19, among other factors.
“Dahil po epektibo ‘yung ating ginagawang alert level system, ‘yung pagpapatupad ng ating minimum public health standards, at ang ating massive na pagbabakuna, nakikita po natin na talagang mababa na ang ating mga cases,” Año reported to President Rodrigo Duterte during Monday (Dec. 13) night’s Talk to the People.
Año said local government units in Metro Manila have stopped imposing granular lockdowns due to the decreasing number of COVID-19 cases.
Before the introduction of the alert level system, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) had been imposing community quarantine classifications to combat the pandemic.
Año said more guidelines have to be observed under the alert level system, but these allowed the reopening of the economy and the provision of more job opportunities.
He also reported that the number of violations of mass gatherings has gone down, although authorities have noticed that more people have not been observing the wearing of face masks and physical distancing.
The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday logged 235 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest number of single-day infections in 18 months.
The number of active cases, the DOH said, also declined further to 10,526 as 780 more people recovered from the disease. The country now has 2,775,991 recoveries.
The DOH also recorded only 10 new deaths, which brought the country’s COVID-19 fatalities to 50,351.
According to DOH data on Dec. 12, only 0.9% of 24,120 who were tested turned out positive for COVID-19. (PNA) – jlo
