It’s final: Face shields are still mandatory

by Ralph Hernandez / June 22, 2021

Malacañang has clarified that wearing face shields in public is still required. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque walked back on his earlier announcement that it is no longer mandatory for people outdoors.

Tweeting hours before the broadcast of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s taped address late Monday night, Roque said the chief executive acted on the advice of health experts and in view of the Delta variant.

The Delta variant, according to the World Health Organization, is one of the COVID-19 variants of concern first documented in India.

Duterte, in his talk, explained that it was “just a casual chat” when he mentioned the issue about the face shield with members of the Congress and that it was never said with finality.

“It’s a small inconvenience, actually… But that is only a very small price to pay than rather gamble with doing away with it and courting disaster,” he added.

Last week, Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, and Senate President Tito Sotto were quoted in reports saying conflicting statements regarding the president’s pronouncements regarding the requirement of wearing a face shield.

DOH Update

As of June 21 2021, 4:00 PM COVID-19 Update, the Department of Health (DOH) reported a total of 1,364,239 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 5,249 of which are new cases, bringing the number of active cases to 55,847. There are 7,053 people who recovered from the disease, increasing the total number of recoveries to 1,284,643. However, 128 more died, increasing the local death toll to 23,749.