The entire Philippines is now under Alert Level 2 after the province of Apayao was de-escalated from Alert Level 3 by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Apayao, which was initially placed under Alert Level 3, was placed under Alert Level 2 from Dec. 3 to 15.
Acting Palace spokesman Karlo Nograles said that the IATF had amended the metrics for determining alert level classifications of provinces, highly urbanized cities, and independent component cities in the country.
The task force made the following amendments:
- one-week growth rate is no longer a metric for escalation from Alert Level 1 to Alert Level 2;
- areas under Alert Level 1 will be escalated to Alert Level 2 if either case classification or total Covid-19 bed utilization increases to moderate risk or higher; and
- areas under Alert Level 2 will be escalated 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
The alert level system replaced the community quarantines the government has been imposing to curb the spread of Covid-19 since last year.
Alert Level 2 allows several outdoor and indoor activities to be held albeit at limited capacity. John Ezekiel J. Hirro