Christmas parties may be held in areas under Alert Level 2 provided that they are held at 50 percent venue capacity, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said on Friday.
In a Laging Handa briefing, Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said establishments should ensure that Christmas party-goers would adhere to public health standards.
“Besides the venue capacity ay kailangan pong sumunod sa minimum public health standards, kailangan po lagi naka-face mask at lagi pong may social distancing,” Malaya said.
Non-compliance of establishments will lead to the revocation of their safety seals, Malaya said.
Government officials have said that Filipinos might celebrate a better Christmas this year compared with 2020.
In Christmas 2020, the Duterte government asked for the public’s strict compliance with health protocols and discouraged usual traditions and celebrations to avoid Covid-19.
The Philippines began its Covid-19 vaccination on March 1, 2021.
As of Dec. 2, it has administered over 90 million Covid-19 vaccine doses and 37.3 million fully vaccinated individuals.
While it has yet to achieve herd immunity and ranked last in Bloomberg’s Covid-19 resilience rankings for three straight months, the Philippines has been seeing a downturn in its Covid-19 cases. John Ezekiel J. Hirro