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MANILA – Now is not yet the time for government to lift mask mandates in the country, a health expert said Friday.

On Thursday, an expert said the Philippines should wait a little more before lifting the requirement to wear face masks in public spaces, despite the relatively low numbers of new coronavirus infections.

• Scrapping COVID-19 mask rule possible, but should not be soon: expert

“Yun yung talagang minumungkahi namin, wag muna nating alisin ang face mask,” said Dr. Maricar Limpin of the Philippine College of Physicians.

(That's what we are suggesting, let's not remove our mask mandates yet.)

“Nakita na natin ang ebidensya kung gaano kahalaga at ka-effective ang proteksyon na ibinibigay ng face mask na ito. In fact, nag-usap nga kami sa isa’t isa and sinasabi nga namin we are not seeing yung masyadong mataas na kaso ng COVID-19 natin ngayon kahit alam natin na nandito na ngayon yung subvariant sa loob ng ating bansa.”

“Primarily maybe because yung pagsusuot ng face mask e nakakatulong talaga,” she said.

(We have seen how important and effective face masks are. In fact, we were talking among ourselves about how we don't have a spike in cases despite the presence of more infectious COVID-19 subvariants in the country, Primarily because the wearing of face masks helps.)

“Tingnan mo ang ibang bansa dahil wala na silang face mask sangkatutak na kaso ng COVID-19 ang kanilang nakikita,” she said.

(Look at the other countries, because they lifted mask mandates, they now have a lot of COVID-19 cases.)

• Pagiging 'optional' ng face masks ihinihirit; ilang eksperto kumontra

Limpin, however, said they are in favor of lifting the state of public health emergency in the country.

“Ang kaso natin ay medyo nananatili na mababa ang kaso. So yung pag-alis siguro sa public health emergency, dito sa ating bansa ay something na sinusuportahan namin.”

(We still have a low number of cases. So we support the lifting of the state of public health emergency.)

“We approve of it na alisin na para sa ganoon ay medyo maging masigla na rin ang ating ekonomiya (so the economy can be lively again because) kasi we have to really lift up our economy,” she said.

--TeleRadyo, 3 June 2022