DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said the city has been targeting to be placed under Alert Level 0 as part of its aim to normalcy amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
"Mas maayo unta kung Alert Level 0, mao kana ang gusto natong tanan (It would be better if the city was placed under Alert Level 0 since we are all aiming for that), but we are OK with Alert Level 1," Duterte-Carpio said in her regular interview streamed live on her official Facebook page Monday afternoon, April 4.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) extended the Alert Level 1 status of the city until April 15.
The city has been placed under the less strict alert classification since March 1 due to the continuing downtrend of Covid-19 active cases.
The mayor said that under Alert Level 0, all IATF-issued guidelines will no longer be implemented. She is uncertain, though, if the mandatory wearing of face masks will be lifted.
"I don't think angay pa tanggalon ang face masks sa pagkakaron. Mao lang na siya akong opinion (It is the right time to lift the mandatory wearing of face masks as of now. That is my opinion),” she said.
Duterte-Carpio cited the experience of other countries that prematurely lifted the wearing of masks despite not being able to reach 100 percent of their target population. Eventually, these places, she said, had reimposed its wearing.
"Dili siguro angay nga tanggalon ang face masks kay maglisod pud ta isplika sa mga tao na pud ngano ibalik ang face mask in the event nga mudaghan na pud ang cases (I don’t think we should be lifting the wearing of face masks for we will have a hard time explaining to them in the event that there would be, again, a surge of cases)," she said.
Duterte-Carpio said she had been wanting the city to reopen its economy under the "new normal" setup.
She also urged the business sector to take advantage of the opportunity for them to reopen their businesses.
This was evident when she issued Executive Order 11 (EO 11), Series of 2022, on March 7, 2022, lifting all Covid-19 restrictions in the city.
The mayor said in the EO that "there is a need to swiftly reopen the city for economic recovery in view of the impending increase in prices."
She also pointed out that the city's active cases have continued to drop in the past few weeks.
She added that "Davao City is currently at 86.20 percent for first doses and 84.19 percent for second doses of 80 percent of the city’s total population, and at 16.80 percent for booster shots of the total number of fully-vaccinated individuals as reported by the Davao City Task Force on Covid-19 on March 7, 2022."
As of Monday, April 4, the IATF has not yet placed a single area in the country under Alert Level 0.
National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 special medical adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa said in a Philippine News Agency article that the declaration of Alert Level 0 in a certain area does not mean the Covid-19 has already been eliminated.
Herbosa made this remark following his previous statement that the National Capital Region is already eligible for Alert Level 0 classification.