MANILA, Philippines — COVID-19 infections could go up to 18,000 a day by late 2022 if the government pushes through with making face masks optional even indoors, the Department of Health said Thursday.
Citing projections by scientists, DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire told ABS CBN News Channel that daily COVID-19 cases may range from 2,500 to as high as 18,000 if masking rules are further loosened.
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Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco earlier announced that President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. will issue an executive order allowing the voluntary wearing of face masks indoors.
Masks will still be required in public transportation and in medical settings, Frasco added.
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Vergeire said the health department had presented possible scenarios to the government’s inter-agency task force on pandemic response concerning mask mandates. She, however, noted that the task force is a collegial body.
"There’s this agreement with [the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] that we will still have unified messaging wherein we still highly encourage wearing of masks, especially in high-risk areas like public transport, health facilities and for the vulnerable like the elderly, pregnant women, the unvaccinated," she said.
The position of the DOH has always been to continue wearing masks to protect people from getting COVID-19. In September, the agency warned it was not yet time to ease mask wearing outdoors, but was overruled by the IATF and by the executive order of Marcos.
Vergeire added that COVID-19 cases are expected to rise not only because of the eased mask rules, but also because of the presence of new subvariants and increased mobility of the public.
"Cases are going to increase, but what we need to preserve would be our healthcare capacity," she said. — Gaea Katreena Cabico