The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will push for the discontinuation of the face shield requirement in the Philippines, an official said on Thursday.
In a Laging Handa briefing, Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the DILG would forward its recommendation to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases.
“Nakausap ko po si [Interior] Secretary Eduardo Año diyan and kami po, we support na paluwagin na iyong polisiya natin sa paggamit ng face shield,” he said.
“So kami po sa DILG, we will recommend to the IATF na dahan-dahan na nating tanggalin iyong face shield as a requirement except of course in hospital setting,” he added.
Malaya said face shields were still needed in hospitals because these places were “high-risk environments.”
Palace spokesman Harry Roque earlier said several members of the IATF were in support of scrapping the requirement as Covid-19 cases in the country continued to decrease.
The Philippine government made mandatory the wearing of face shields nationwide in December last year, nine months since the first community quarantine was imposed in the country.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, face shields are not effective in protecting an individual from respiratory droplets.
Filipinos are required to wear face shields in the “3Cs”: closed, crowded and close-contact areas. John Ezekiel J. Hirro