People attend the Friday mass at the Quiapo Church in Manila on March 11, 2022. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News
MANILA— Metro Manila mayors have supported proposals to further deescalate the capital region into Alert Level Zero as fresh COVID-19 cases continued to decline, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said Tuesday.
In a public briefing, MMDA General Manager Frisco San Juan, Jr. said no local chief executive opposed the alert level proposal.
"Karamihan po ay nagsasabi na nakahanda na sila dahil patuloy naman ang pagbaba ng numero, kaso, nitong mga... nakaraan," said San Juan.
(Many mayors said that they are ready for the alert level because of the declining number of new cases recently.)
"Wala po namang nagsabi ng kanilang oposisyon, ang sabi lang, handa lang sila lahat," he added.
(Nobody announced their opposition but they all said they are ready for the alert level.)
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) earlier said that under COVID-19 Alert Level Zero, the respiratory disease would just be treated as an ordinary flu.
Local government units, meanwhile, will be given more power to manage rising cases.
Wearing of face mask would still be mandated unless the COVID-19 task force directs otherwise, he said.
"Gusto namin ay patuloy na magsuot ng face mask hanggang masabi natin na hindi na po tayo matatamaan ng COVID-19 lalong lalo na bukas ang ating airports [para sa ibang bansa]" he said.
Mayors will also continue monitoring the number of fresh cases.
Dr. Rontgene Solante, an infectious disease expert, had said that Alert Level Zero should not be imposed anytime soon due to the threat of an emerging deltacron variant, which has caused a spike of cases in US and in Europe.
New COVID-19 cases in the Philippines continued to decline in recent days, data from the Department of Health showed.
The agency on Monday announced that from March 7 to 13, the country tallied 4,131 new COVID-19 cases or an average of 590 per day, which is 35 percent lower than the cases reported from the previous week.
Video from PTV