Duterte approves nationwide implementation of COVID-19 alert levels
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the nationwide implementation of the COVID-19 alert level system, marking a departure from the community quarantine classifications.
According to Duterte’s Executive Order No. 151, the rollout of the alert level system will be implemented in four phases.
The first phase will cover Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Central Visayas and Davao Region. The second phase will see the alert level system expand to Ilocos, Eastern Visayas and Northern Mindanao.
Alert levels will then be hoisted over Cagayan, BIcol, Zamboanga Peninsula in the third phase, followed by the Cordillera Administrative Region, Mimaropa, Caraga and the Bangsamoro region in the fourth phase.
The first phase is ongoing, while the second phase may begin any time, not later than the end of November, as determined by the government’s pandemic task force.
Succeeding phases will then begin every week thereafter until the alert levels system is fully implemented nationwide.
The alert level system, which was first implemented in Metro Manila back in September, is a new government strategy to curb infections without resorting to widespread lockdowns, allowing some businesses to operate at a certain capacity and under certain conditions.
Alert levels are based on the virus transmission rate, hospital bed utilization rate and intensive care utilization rate of a city or municipality.
For a full guide to the alert level system, read this guide by Philstar.com. — Xave Gregorio with a report from Alexis Romero/The STAR
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