Mayor Evelio Leonardia has reminded residents here to continue wearing face masks even under Alert Level 1 as part of the minimum public health standards against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
“Let us always remind ourselves that Covid-19 is still here. We still need to use face masks because it is still a necessity under the circumstance,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has placed Bacolod under Alert Level 1, the lowest category in the Covid-19 alert level system, from March 1 to 15, after the city recorded a high vaccination rate and a steady decrease in infections in the past several weeks.
Under Alert Level 1, well-fitted face masks shall be worn properly at all times, based on the IATF-EID guidelines.
Leonardia urged Bacolodnons to still observe the Covid-19 health protocols to help the city sustain the lowest community quarantine classification.
“Bacolodnons should not celebrate prematurely. Being in Alert Level 1 is something that is reassuring and it showed that our policies and practices have been hitting the targets,” he added.
The mayor also underscored the importance of getting vaccinated to be highly protected against Covid-19.
Em Legaspi Ang, executive director of Emergency Operations Center Task Force (EOC-TF), echoed the mayor’s call for continued vigilance against Covid-19.
“We still need to discipline ourselves even if we have no restrictions,” she said.
Ang said the EOC-TF is set to meet with officials of the Department of Education and other concerned agencies to discuss plans to expand the limited face-to-face classes to two more schools in Barangay Alangilan, where public senior high school students have already been attending in-person classes since late last year.
“We are already in the new normal. This is also where our transition phase will enter as prepared by the local government unit,” she added.
On Tuesday, Bacolod logged two new cases and recorded 203 active cases, based on the data of the Department of Health-Western Visayas (DOH-6). (PNA)
